During the 51-year history of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, fewer than 60 of the species it has listed as threatened or endangered have recovered enough to warrant being taken off the list. But last year, two flowers found in the Pacific Northwest achieved delisted status: the golden paintbrush and Nelson’s checker-mallow. Their stories show how cooperation, effort and community support have drastic impacts when it comes to conservation and restoration work.
How to protect wildflowers
- Stay on trails to avoid harming habitat
- Use boot brushes to prevent bringing invasive species' seeds into parks
- Take photos of flowers, don't pick them!
In both cases, the flowers’ recovery plan was overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Institute of Applied Ecology in Corvallis. They, in turn, enlisted a wide range of groups to help in the effort: government agencies, tribal governments, conservation nonprofits, private landowners, universities – and Metro.
“I felt very excited and a little bit of pride that our program was able to contribute to taking a species away from the brink of disappearing from the planet,” said Metro science and stewardship division manager Jonathan Soll. “We weren't the leader, and we weren't even one of the most important partners necessarily, but we played a good role.”
The golden paintbrush is a bright-yellow, long-stemmed perennial that does, indeed, resemble a paintbrush reaching toward the sky. It was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1997. At one point, there were no wild populations in Oregon at all.
Golden paintbrush thrives in sunny, open upland prairie – the most endangered type of habitat in the Willamette Valley, due to ranching, grazing and development. In 2010 the USFWS unveiled its plan to recover prairie species in western Oregon and southwest Washington. It identified Metro as a potential partner for repopulating species.
Golden paintbrush: Best viewed in May at Howell Territorial Park and Cooper Mountain Nature Park. Photo by Curt Zonick
Metro Parks and Nature identified three parks with proper habitat and soil conditions to plant golden paintbrush: Howell Territorial Park, Graham Oaks Nature Park and Cooper Mountain Nature Park. Metro and partners across the Pacific Northwest planted and managed the seeds given to them by USFWS. In total, 48 sites were established. The plants especially thrived at Howell Territorial Park, with nearly 50,000 plants counted in 2018.
The second recovered species, Nelson’s checker-mallow, is a pollinator-attracting magenta flower that grows in wet prairie land. The flower was listed as threatened in 1993 after struggling due to unmanaged wetlands, habitat loss from logging and agriculture, and competition from invasive species.
Metro had a more-active role in the recovery of the checker-mallow. Metro’s Native Plant Center provided the seeds distributed to partners by the Institute of Applied Ecology and USFWS.
“I think that we have a moral responsibility as human beings to protect the diversity of life on Earth that we inherited,” Soll said. “More practically, we never know when a species is going to serve a particular value to humans, and we never know the role of a particular species in how the ecosystem works.”
Both flowers bloom in late spring to early summer. Metro’s work in repopulation programs was supported by funds from the voter-approved parks and nature bond and levy.
“It shows that the investment that our community has made in the parks in nature program was a real contributor to the health of the larger ecosystem,” Soll said.