Nebraskaland

62 NEBRASKAland • MARCH 2017 T he final plan to guide the recovery of the endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in January. The plan formalizes the recovery strategy and puts a $30 million estimated cost on the work that, if completed, experts believe would remove the small, predatory insect from the endangered species list in 30 years. One of the rarest insects in the North America, numbering about 300 adults last summer, the Salt Creek tiger beetle is currently only found along a four-mile stretch of Little Salt Creek north of Lincoln. It makes its home in the equally rare saline wetlands. Once covering 20,000 acres in Lancaster and Saunders counties, these wetlands, barren salt flats, and the springs that fed them led to the development of a salt processing industry which spawned the settlement of Lincoln. After more than a century of agricultural and urban development and stream modifications, just roughly 35 to 40 acres remains that is capable of supporting the Salt Creek tiger beetle. Continuing to conserve and restore the wetlands that remain is a key part of the plan, and most of the estimated $30 million price tag. "There's nothing earthshaking in that recovery plan," said Bob Harms, a USFWS biologist at the agency's Wood River office overseeing Salt Creek tiger beetle recovery. "We didn't wait for a recovery plan to start doing recovery on the tiger beetle. "But it's not cheap. It's land acquisition and restoration, and a lot of these places are highly degraded." Work to preserve saline wetlands began even before the Salt Creek tiger beetle was added to the state's endangered species list in 2000. It was federally listed in 2005. Leading the work is the Saline Wetlands Conservation Partnership, formed in 2003 by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Lower Platte South Natural Resources District, City of Lincoln and The Nature Conservancy. Together, the partners have purchased about 1,530 acres from willing sellers. Another 900 acres have been protected from development under conservation easements through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Wetland Reserve Program. Combined, this land includes about 30 percent of the 1,110 acres along Little Salt, Rock, Haines Branch and Oak creeks that the Service in 2014 deemed habitat critical for recovery of the Salt Creek tiger beetle. Numerous restoration projects have been completed, including one in 2016 at the mouth of Little Salt Creek on the NRD's Marsh Wren property that peeled the bank away to create a shelf along the creek near a saline seep. Similar work done previously on Shoemaker Marsh north of Lincoln was quickly colonized by tiger beetles. These creek-side seeps, which offer the moist, saline soils tiger beetles require during their entire life cycle are, with one exception, the only places tiger beetles are currently found. They are, however, a dangerous place for beetles, as spring flooding can easily wash away the underground burrows in which beetles spend most of their two-year life cycle. Partners hope to do more in the salt flats where the insect historically thrived. This habitat, once mostly barren ground dotted with salt-loving plants like the endangered saltwort, and where water levels varied from year to year and seasonally, is now often too dry, not salty enough or choked by vegetation. Another project at Marsh Wren, the first of its kind, will address these issues and test the findings of a recent study of saline groundwater by students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, another partner in the tiger beetle recovery program. Last year, sediment was removed from two degraded wetlands and a well was installed. Saline water will be pumped into those wetlands starting this summer, a move partners hope will replicate conditions created by saline springs that no longer flow to the surface. "If you can get that salinity back in the soils, that's going to take care of some of your vegetative problems, because not all of the plants can handle that type of an environment," said Tom Malmstrom, Natural Resources Coordinator for the partnership in a joint position funded by the Commission, NRD and City of Lincoln. The partnership will also begin implementation of the Upper Little Salt Creek Saline Wetlands plan. Based on Salt Creek Tiger Beetle Final recovery plan for endangered insect includes timeline and price tag. By Eric Fowler

• Cover