"Two days of slogging through woods and swamps ... on hands and knees
turned up no evidence of a tiny, rare orchid [
Isotria medeoloides] in New Kent County [Virginia].
For six months, county officials waited for the federally threatened small
whorled pogonia to bloom before starting construction on a $17 million
public-utilities project...
Last fall, potential habitats where the rare plant could exist were
identified at seven sites where the county plans to run water and sewer
lines. But county officials had to wait for the wild orchid to start
flowering before looking. The plant flowers from about mid-May to mid-June.
"We did anticipate early in the process that these species might be
present. It was just unfortunate we couldn't do definitive surveys
previously," said Ian Frost, a consultant who is helping the county obtain
environmental permits for the project.
Over the weekend, an expert certified to identify federally protected
plants, along with an environmental consultant, searched for the orchid and
another threatened plant, swamp pink, which was not found during an earlier
inspection.
....
If the small whorled pogonia had been found, it could have boosted the
project's cost by $250,000 to $300,000 in order to drill beneath the plants...
This weekend, areas along the next phase of the county's utility plan...
also will be surveyed for endangered or threatened species"
source :
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782952768
***********
Regards,
Viateur
_______________________________________________
the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD)
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