The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is releasing the final recovery plan for three endangered aquatic invertebrate species that inhabit springs within desert wetlands of the Chihuahuan Desert of West Texas: the Diamond tryonia, Gonzales tryonia and Pecos amphipod. The overall recovery strategy focuses on conserving the desert wetland ecosystem to support resilient populations of the imperiled species.
The final recovery plan establishes downlisting and delisting criteria for the Diamond tryonia, Gonzales tryonia and Pecos amphipod (collectively referred to as Diamond Y Invertebrates), which were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act on July 9, 2013. The Diamond tryonia and Gonzales tryonia are tiny freshwater snails, and the Pecos amphipod is a small, shrimp-like crustacean.
“Desert wetlands, or cienegas, used to be more abundant in the Northern Chihuahuan Desert,” said Michael Warriner, Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the Service’s Austin Ecological Services Field Office. “Multiple springs have gone dry, and now the Diamond Y Spring system is the largest remaining springs still flowing in Pecos County. The Service is extremely grateful that The Nature Conservancy preserves this important spring and cienega system at the Diamond Y Spring Preserve and aids in conservation efforts for the Diamond Y Invertebrates and other rare species.”
The Northern Chihuahuan Desert cienegas support multiple endemic and diverse communities of springsnails, amphipods and other invertebrates found nowhere else in the world. Four other federally endangered or threatened species, including the Leon Springs pupfish, Pecos gambusia, Pecos sunflower and Pecos assiminea, occur on the Diamond Y Spring Preserve.
Threats to the Diamond Y Invertebrates continue to be diminished water quantity due to groundwater pumping and drought and water quality contamination. Increased aridity and warming temperatures due to climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change can intensify these threats.
Additional recovery plan strategies for the Diamond Y Invertebrates include addressing threats to the species, improving the understanding of the species to enhance conservation actions, collaborating with partners on habitat management strategies and engaging in community outreach.
Recovery plans are not regulatory. Rather, they provide both a framework for guiding recovery of species and the criteria to indicate when federal protection may no longer be necessary. The recovery plan aims to safeguard the Diamond Y Invertebrates from extinction. The recovery plan describes actions which are considered necessary to achieve recovery of the species, establishes downlisting and delisting criteria and estimates the time and cost to implement recovery actions for the species.
The final recovery plan for the Diamond Y Invertebrates can be found on the species’ profile webpages: Diamond tryonia, Gonzales tryonia and Pecos amphipod.
The Service received a $62.5 million investment in Inflation Reduction Act funds to address Endangered Species Recovery Planning efforts that will be implemented over the next several years to benefit more than 300 species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act. This infusion of funding allowed the Service to hire additional biologists to complete recovery plans that are necessary to recover species and remove them from the Endangered Species list.
America’s fish, wildlife and plant resources belong to all of us, and ensuring the health of imperiled species is a shared responsibility. The Service actively engages conservation partners and the public in the search for improved and innovative ways to conserve and recover imperiled species.
