Feds Try to Save Endangered Tenn. Plant

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD

WASHINGTON – The federal government has finished a plan to try to save an endangered plant that is found only in Tennessee.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its plan for the Spring Creek Bladderpod Wednesday. The plant faces a high risk of becoming extinct if the recovery efforts do not work, according to the agency.

The plant is located in 21 places in Wilson County, about 25 miles east of Nashville.

Timothy Merritt, the recovery coordinator for the plant, said the plan includes trying to convert land where the plant is found from private property into publicly owned land.

He said some of the lots have come up for sale but that the government has had difficulty competing with the high prices developers will pay.

Merritt said a second key component of the recovery plan is for officials to conduct more research into how to increase the number of plant populations that exist.

Merritt said the Spring Creek Bladderpod is sun loving and doesn’t do well when it has to compete with other plants for space. It is small and fragile looking with a white and yellow flower, he said, adding, “It’s easily overlooked.”

One thing that is special about the plant is a kind of oil that can be extracted from its seed pod and is used in commercial processes such as making plastics, Merritt said. A more common bladderpod is grown commercially for that purpose out West, he said.

Merritt said rapid development in the area where the Spring Creek bladderpod is found is the biggest threat. “Some of them are getting bulldozed. They’re getting built on,” he said.

Lebanon-based Cracker Barrel Inc. and TRW, an auto parts company, own some of the property where the plant is located. Both have agreed to try to help with its recovery, according to Merritt.

He said the agency hasn’t had the same luck securing agreements from other land owners. The government can’t prosecute private property owners for disturbing endangered plants, something they can do with endangered animals, he said.

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On the Net:

Recovery plan: http://www.fws.gov/cookeville/