White River beardtongue (Penstemon scariosus var. albifluvis) is a shrubby plant with lavender flowers and grows up to 20 inches tall.
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Graham's beardtongue (Penstemon grahamii) is dormant most of the year but produces vivid pink flowers and golden-orange hairs.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) seeks to set aside 83,000 acres in Utah and Colorado to protect the "critical habitat" of the Graham's beardtongue (Penstemon grahamii) and the White River beardtongue (Penstemon scariosus). Protecting habitat was legislated in 1982 under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), what's been called the Magna Carta of the environmental movement.

Graham's beardtongue and the White River beardtongue are only found in the Uinta Mountain basins of northeastern Utah and adjacent western Colorado. The plants are perennials in the plantain family, and grow in soils containing calcium carbonate from oil shale barrens of the Green River geologic formation. These species are found nowhere else in the U.S.

The FWS's proposes to designate 68,000 acres (66 percent federal land: 34 percent split between state and private lands) to protect the Graham's beardtongue, and 15,000 acres (47 percent private land, 39 percent federal and 14 percent state owned) to protect the White River beardtongue. Both acreage parcels are occupied.

A FWS draft economic analysis estimates protecting these plants in the first year will cost nearly $3 million, the money going mostly to traditional oil and gas producers.