NEWS RELEASES
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through EcoWatch's website.
All of the glaciers in Glacier National Park are expected to be gone by 2030, with them stoneflies are expected to disappear as well. Stoneflies are similar to dragonflies and mayflies in that they spend part of their lives underwater before emerging onto the land, where they transform into winged adults less than a half inch long. Stoneflies almost only live exclusively downstream from glaciers, snowfields, and frigid alpine springs, without these conditions, stoneflies would disappear. Jason Bittel, writer for EcoWatch, covers in his article, "In November, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the western glacier stonefly (Zapada glacier) and the meltwater lednian stonefly (Lednia tumana) to the Endangered Species List, both under the designation of threatened. And while the two species are extremely sensitive to pollution, as all stoneflies are, another very significant risk factor is what triggered the listing." The CBD and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation have been petitioning for the western glacier stonefly's listing since 2010, and WildEarth Guardians has been pushing for federal protections for the meltwater lednian stonefly since 2007. Without a listing, the stonefly will disappear by 2030. To read more on stoneflies at Glacier National Park, click here.