Tropical Deforestation ... Rain Forests in Peril ...  Extinct!  Headlines like these often grace the front pages of newspapers, regardless of where we live.  We hear that plants in the Amazon Rain Forest are becoming extinct at an alarming rate and this is mainly due to humans altering the fragile rain forest environment.  Although we are aware of the rapid extinction of plant species in the rain forests of South America, this problem seems far removed from life in Idaho. 

In reality, however, this is not the case.  Idaho, too, has its share of rare and endangered plants.  Just as the Amazon Rain Forest is being altered by human hands, we also have changed our environment.  Most of the Intermountain West’s extensive sagebrush-steppe ecosystem has been altered by humans through livestock grazing, agriculture, and the introduction of non-native plants. 

Although some plants are rare naturally, even without human interference, populations of naturally rare plants are often particularly vulnerable to human disturbance.

The Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, or INL occupies 890 square miles of the upper Snake River Plain +  mostly in the sagebrush-steppe ecosystem.  Although the primary purpose of the INL is to conduct energy research, a by-product of this research is that the INL is one of the largest protected areas of sagebrush-steppe in the west.