No Love for the Lichen: Feds Reject Plans to Protect Numerous Southwestern Species

Arizona tiger moths like the one to the left -- and hundreds of other Southwestern critters -- don't need to be added to the endangered species list, the feds have ruled.True, the list of species submitted for possible protection includes many that might make you want to reach for a...

By Ray Stern

January 7, 2009

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Arizona tiger moths like the one to the left -- and hundreds of other Southwestern critters -- don't need to be added to the endangered species list, the feds have ruled.

True, the list of species submitted for possible protection includes many that might make you want to reach for a can of Raid: pseudoscorpions, spiders, moths, flies.

But the failure to preserve the small beings of the desert might have mean major problems in the long-term. It's good to keep in mind that the food chain leads right to us.

You can read more about the decision in the Federal Register, which you can find the list of Arizona species that didn't make the cut.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.