The gray wolf, the peregrine falcon, the snapping turtle and 26 other Minnesota plants and animals are healthy enough to come off the state's list of endangered and threatened species.
But 180 species of plants and animals have been added, a reflection of the state's major environmental problems — from loss of prairies and forests to invasive species and polluted water.
The update of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) list, the first revamp in 17 years, brought to 590 the total number of species that may be endangered or on their way to extinction.
Several were removed, including the wolf, bald eagle and trumpeter swan, leading some to say the law is succeeding. But protecting those on the ever-lengthening list will require landscape-size solutions, state wildlife officials said.
"We've got to learn how to manage at a larger scale," said Richard Baker, endangered species coordinator for the DNR.
The strategy of trying to save one species at a time will no longer work, Baker said. The new list shows that bigger solutions, such as maintaining broad swaths of forest and grassland, will be critical for the survival of not only those on the list but many others, he said.
Many animals and plants added to the list or moved up in status to threatened or endangered are unfamiliar to most. They include the spectaclecase mollusk, five types of jumping spiders, eight species of dragonflies, and many dozens of plants and lichens.
Taken together, they point out the state's major environmental problems, including declining water quality, rapidly disappearing prairies, and fragmentation of the northern forests, Baker said.
