Plant-threatening de-icer won’t be dropped

LEAVENWORTH, Wash. – The state Department of Transportation will continue to use road de-icer on U.S. Highway 2 west of Leavenworth, even though it kills an endangered plant growing near the road.

The showy stickseed, a perennial and member of the forget-me-not family, was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2002. The plant’s numbers have declined over the years because of a combination of factors, including fire suppression, human disturbance, noxious weeds, herbicides and road de-icer.

The lone surviving population of showy stickseed comprises about 600 plants scattered over unstable, granite cliffs on the lower slopes of Tumwater Canyon, primarily on federal lands near the highway.

A new federal plan for saving the plant from extinction calls for immediate action to reduce threats, stabilize its numbers and increase the population size across its historic range. The state is trying to find ways to reduce the impact of de-icer on the plants, but it will continue to use the calcium chloride compound.

Under the federal Endangered Species Act, public safety is “still No. 1,” said Tim McCracken, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and recovery team leader for the plant . He said the plants growing along the edge of Highway 2 are considered at high risk of dying, so they aren’t a stable part of the population.

“We try to keep every one,” he said. “But you can only do so much. That’s not an ideal place for them anyway.”

Transportation officials have stopped using harmful herbicides to control weeds where the plants grow, and have removed one highway pullout near the plants to keep people from walking into the habitat, said Claton Belmont, regional environmental manager for the agency.

The irony of the road de-icer problem is that the agency switched from sanding the road to using the salt solution in 1998 partly because the sand washes into rivers and streams and can harm spawning areas for imperiled fish, Belmont said.

“There’s no perfect solution here,” he said.

In a draft recovery plan for the plant, success hinges on collecting seeds, growing them in a controlled setting and then reintroducing them into different areas.

Universities and botanic gardens are already experimenting with growing the plants. Other actions will include using prescribed fire, tree thinning and weed pulling to maintain and even increase habitat.