Maryland's Department of Natural Resources has completed a statewide review of the state's rare species and is proposing to revise the Threatened and Endangered Species list.
Several years ago, in concert with the Chesapeake Bay protection effort, DNR reviewed the rare plants, animals and habitats of Maryland's tidewater counties. As a result of that review, in 1987 the Threatened and Endangered Species list was expanded from 33 species to a total of 342 species.
Now, the rare species of Central and Western Maryland have been reviewed, and the department is proposing to add an 281 species, including the northern goshawk, the barking treefrog and the early coralroot orchid, to the list. Five previously listed species are proposed for removal.
Why should we be concerned about endangered species? Janet McKegg, director of the department's Natural Heritage Division, said: "Endangered species can act as a miner's canary to warn us of threats to our health and well-being. Miners used to carry caged canaries down into the mines with them because the canaries were more sensitive to poisonous gases than the miners.
"If the canaries stopped singing and succumbed, the miners knew they had to evacuate the mine and reach fresh air quickly. Throughout the world during the last decade, many species of amphibians have suffered a rapid, devastating decline in their numbers. Such precipitous declines in once common species should warn us that our own well-being may be in jeopardy."
Habitat destruction and fragmentation are the main threats to Maryland's rare species. Additional threats include competition and habitat disruption from non-native species and diseases, acid precipitation, global warming, rising sea level and increased ultraviolet radiation due to atmospheric ozone layer depletion.
Most of the species on the Maryland Threatened and Endangered Species list, and those proposed for addition to the list, are so rare that fewer than five members of each species are known to live in the state. In fact more than 200 species are listed by the state as Endangered Extirpated because they no longer can be found in Maryland.
The Maryland Threatened and Endangered Species list has four categories: Endangered, Endangered Extirpated, Threatened and In Need of Conservation.
Endangered species are in danger of disappearing from Maryland.
