Act Fights Extinction One Species At A Time
By Rebecca R. Klrtland
National Geographic Newa Service
WASHINGTON -- In a desert
canyon in Emery County, Utah,
grows a 5-inch tall perennial with
pink and white daisylike blooms.
Scientists believe this plant, the
Maguire fleabane, is the last one of
its kind in the world.
In San Francisco, a rare butter
fly, the bay checkerspot, is in
danger of losing the best of its
dwindling habitat to a golf course.
If it becomes extinct, more than
two decades of scientific research
and government funds will have
been spent in vain.
In Florida, the largest freshwater
turtle in the Western Hemisphere i*
literally in the soup. The alligator
snapping turtle's numbers are
dropping rapidly because of over
harvesting by soup makers.
One Extinction a Day
These are but three of the many
species of plants and animals that
need help from humans to survive.
Scientists estimate that extinction
claims one species every 24 hours;
some believe the rate might be one
every hour by the end of the
decade. The Global 2000 report, a
1980 study of world environmental
problems, predicted the loss of
one-fifth of the earth's species by
the year 2000.
The Endangered Species Act of
1973, the most comprehensive le
gislation of its kind in the world,
was authorized by Congress to help
arrest this decline. The act, which
is to be reauthorized this year,
established the U.S. List of Endan
gered and Threatened Wildlife and
Plants that now includes 236 native
animals and 54 plants. An addi
tional 3,000 plants and 200 animals
are candidates for listing.
To list a new species, scientific
evidence must be presented that the
species is in danger of extinction in
a significant part of its range.
Additions to the list have stalled
recently because of extensive cost
benefit analysis required by the
Reagan administration, said Mich
ael Bean of the Environmental
Defense Fund.
After the Tellico Dam controver
sy in Tennessee, where the tiny
snail darter tied up a huge federal
dam project, the act was amended
to allow projects to go forward if
their benefits outweighed the po
tential gain from protecting a
species. But mining, forestry, uti
lity, and other interests still want
more emphasis on the economic
value of proposed development.
That seems unlikely. Bills before
Congress to reauthorize the act for
three years will amend it to base
species listings solely on biological
School Board Acts
On Budget Items
The Hoke County Board of
Education Tuesday night decided
to offer the Hoke County commis
sioners a proposed 1982-83 school
system budget within the $874,227
allowed by the commissioners late
last month but without the school
board's requested S20.230 for
school fees.
County Schools Supt. Raz Autry
pointed out, however, the school
fees fund if granted by the commis
sioners could be worked into the
final school budget by the October
deadline. School board members
Bobby Wright and Walter Coley
asked the commissioners for the
extra funds Tuesday morning. The
commissioners postponed action
pending further study of the matter
and of the proposed school bud
get's line items.
The proposed operating-ex
penses budget was changed prin
cipally Tuesday night to provide
S76.917 for energy costs, a budget
increase of 22.48 percent from the
1981-82 figure for energy. This
item is double the percentage
increase in funding allowed by the
commissioners at the June budget
meeting when they added $38,815
to the school system current ex
penses (operating funds) budget to
advance the total to 5874,227.
The Tuesday meeting was the
school board's regular session for
July. Members Mina Townsend
and Ruth McNair were absent.
Earlier in the meeting, the board
members adopted a motion to
adhere to the policy of not allowing
Hoke County students to transfer to
out-of-county schools, conse
quently turning down a request
that James Edward Hayes II of Rt.
1 , Lumber Bridge, in Hoke County,
be permitted to transfer to Parkton
High School in Robeson County, to
complete his senior year in 1982-83,
from Flora Macdonald Academy,
in Red Springs (also in Robeson
County), which he has attended the
past 1 1 school years.
The request was made by Hayes's
mother, but her son attended the
board meeting in reference to the
request.
After hearing an explanation of
the advantages of a secondary
insurance plan for students for
coverage of athletes in all sports
and for students in other activities
such the band atrtf " chorus
programs, the board voted to
accept the recommendation of Billy
Colston. Hoke County High School
director of athletics, to provide the
coverage at a cost of $3,474. and a
cost to each student of $6.
This is separate from the cover
age of S2.25 per student offered all
students through the school year
outside of athletics and other
school activities outside academics.
The secondary policy pays up to
$3,000 of medical costs, but a
policy provided all North Carolina
high school athletes by the North
Carolina High School Athletic
Association gives "catastrophic"
coverage, which pays medical bills
which exceed $3,000.
By Oavid Alan Harvey
C 1982 National Geographic Society
Random rifle fire and violence have scarred some of the sculptures at Angkor
) during a decade of war in Cambodia. Who wounded this god is unknown.
At many major corporations, when senior officials fly,
they take separate airplanes.
WANTED - RYE
Gurley's Grain Market
Hmbtrtand, N.C.
875-4639
1-800-072-8131
criteria. The bill, however, will also
streamline the exemption process
for industry.
Alligator* Saved
When an animal is listed, it
cannot be harmed, pursued, hunt
ed, transported, or traded. The
heart of the act protects habitat by
requiring that all fedeeral agencies
ensure that their actions, or actions
funded or authorized by them, do
not threaten the existence of a
listed species or adversely affect its
habitat.
Occasionally, this alone is
enough to bring an imperiled
species.
"The American alligator was
nearly wiped out from overharvest
ing but has made a dramatic
comeback because its listing prohi
bited the killing of alligators and
the sale of their hides," Paul Opler,
chief of listings for the Office of
Endangered Species in the Fish and
Wildlife Service, said. "We've been
able to delist the alligator com
pletely in Louisiana and are con
templating similar action in parts
of Florida and Texas."
Man's interference by altering,
exploiting, or destroying the habi
tat is most often the reason that
wildlife becomes endangered. Ex
tensive recovery plans have been
designed for 52 of the listed species.
Most are complex, difficult pro
grams that may take decades to
complete, but some have already
shown success.
One such effort has been the Fish
and Wildlife Service's work with
the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle, the
smallest and rarest sea turtle
species. Their numbers have been
dangerously low since the 1940s,
and they are known to nest
naturally on only one beach--at
Rancho Nuevo, Mexico.
Under the authority of the
Endangered Species Act, the Unit
ed States and Mexico have cooper
ated in protecting the beach and
collecting some of the eggs to hatch
and rear in captivity. The turtles
are then released on a beach at
South Padre Island, Texas, in an
effort to establish a second popula
tion.
Many Kemp's Ridleys have been
lost when caught in shrimp traw
lers' nets. The bill has authorized
funds for research that has brought
new technology to shrimp trawling,
greatly reducing accidental capture
of sea turtles.
Whoopera and Condon
Two of America's glamour birds,
the whooping crane and the Cali
fornia condor, have received the
best efforts that can be mobilized
under the Endangered Species Act.
The whooping crane's numbers
have increased from about 20 in the
1940s to nearly 100 now. In 1975
the U.S. and Canadian wildlife
services began a cooperative effort
to establish a second self-sustaining
"foster" flock by placing whooper
eggs in sandhill crane nests. The
foster flock now has about 20
whooping cranes.
Despite years of work with the
California condor, scientists have
watched the bird slip toward
extinction. Fewer than 30 remain of
a species that within recent history
numbered in the hundreds.
Some species become so rare that
recovery programs cannot be im
plemented. Efforts to save the
black-footed ferret were stymied
when the last captive one died in
1978 and biologists were unable to
located any others in the wild. The
Fish and Wildlife Service even
trained dogs to sniff them out of
their prairie habitat, but without
success.
Eventually, diligence and deter
mination paid off when wildlife
biologist Tim Clark found at least
22 of them alive and breeding
inWyoming.
"Anything that has been done or
will be done for the ferret is
probably attributable to the En
dangered Species Act," said Clark,
whose 10-year search has been
partly supported by the National
Geographic Society. "And if the
ferret were not on the list, probably
nothing would be done for it even
though it's been found."
Some species on the list cannot
be helped by even the world's best
recovery program. There are only
five of Florida's dusky seaside
sparrows left in the world--and all
of them are male.
Living Question Marks
But when it comes to obscure
organisms and plants such as the
Maguire tteabane, what's the harm
of their going the way of the dodo?
And what can be done with just one
plant anyway?
Bruce MacBryde of the endan
gered species office explains:
"Science has not yet screened this
plant. We have not asked it with
the language of today's technology
how it may help us with tomor
row."
Biologist Thomas Eisner of Cor
nell University notes that plants are
the source of most natural products
used today and of vast numbers of
chemicals yet unknown.
"The invertebrates, too. are a
great unknown." he said. His
laboratory has isolated potential
heart drugs from fireflies, a nerve
drug from a millipede, and shark
repellents from a marine mollusk.
In 1W.C. Miss Black Teenage Pageant
Hoke Girl
Miss Congeniality,
3rd Runnerup
Cheryl Farmer, a 16-year-old
Hoke County High School student,
was named Miss Congeniality and
third runnerup in the North Caro
lina Miss Black Teenage World
Pageant June 26 at Meredith
College in Raleigh.
She also was chosen for listing in
Who s Who" among American
high school and university stud
dents.
She advanced to the North
Carolina pageant by winning the
title of Miss Black Teenage World
of Hoke County June 5. A Miss
Cheryl Farmer Day will be held at
Rock Hill Church of Raeford by the
committee for Miss Black Teenage
World of Hoke County, in recogni
tion of her achievements in the
state pageant.
She spent the week in Raleiglr j
with Mrs. Hazel McLaughlin and
Mrs. Elizabeth McCaskill.
Miss Farmer is the daughter of ^
Margaret and Ernest Farmer of Rt.
2. Raeford.
Thomas Jefferson, the na
tion's third president, was
one of the most accomplish
ed and versatile of the na
tion's founders. He spoke
six languages, was a surveyor,
scientist, lawyer, musician,
politician and architect, just
to name a few.
* ? *
Curls N Things will be forming a
Touch-A-Teen Club. Anyone in- ;
terested in joining is advised to call
Curls N Things, 875-5179 or Hazel .
McLaughlin at 875-8020.
The club is for boys and girls
ages 12-20.
WAGON WHEEL RESTAURANT
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with FF, Slaw ft Hushpuppias
$3.99
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r. -i CUSTOMER SERVICE
Dundarrach. N.C.
COMPLETE INSECT CONTROL
FROM THE HOME TO THE FARM
? Federal Crop Insurance
Route 1 Box 251-A Shannon, N.C.
Phone 875-8912
Nights - Jimmy Clark 875-5098 ^
Richard McMillan 875-2493
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INSURANCE
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Phone 875-3667
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money so is a trip to Carolina Power & Light.
We'll loan you up to $600 at just 6% interest
for attic or floor insulation, for storm windows and
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