Let’s Trample on This Clover to Save it from Extinction

The running buffalo clover has overcome the risk of extinction and recovered well enough that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed taking it off the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Plants. The secret: Lots of trampling…

Unlike other plant species, the Trifolium stoloniferum, once thought extinct between 1940 and 1983, survives off of heavy trampling. This means that part of the recovery strategy includes ensuring the clover gets adequately disturbed at least once a decade.

“Oftentimes when you find an endangered species, you say, ‘OK, I’m going to step back and not touch it,’” says Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, research forester at the U.S. Forest Service. “But this one likes being run over by a skidder. It’s a funny plant.”

“This plant likely once followed the trails of bison, which helped maintain [its] habitat,” adds Meagan Racey of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region. But Bison’s, themselves, were almost extinct.

The verdict of whether the plant species will be delisted will be announced sometime after October 28.