This flower exists in only a tiny part of Kentucky. Can it be saved from Louisville sprawl?
On the outskirts of Louisville, the Kentucky glade cress, found nowhere else on Earth, teeters on the brink of extinction.
More than 400 million years ago, during the Silurian period, a band of dolomitic limestone formed here, confining the flower's entire range to the borderlands of Jefferson and Bullitt counties.
Magnesium carbonate, characteristic of these formations, helps guarantee ideal soil conditions for the choosy cress.
For nearly a decade, it's been listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — a designation that lacks the teeth to protect it, advocates say.
Now, amid Louisville's steady suburban sprawl, developers have some of the Kentucky glade cress' range in their sights. Expansions in Jefferson and Bullitt counties are on or near much of the 2,000 acres designated by the federal government as critical habitat for the rare species.
Multiple groups are working to preserve the flower's modest territory, bringing fights for biological diversity to several local fronts. Without action, advocates say, the flower will be bathed in urban runoff, battered by worsening air quality or simply paved over.
'Less and less available habitat'
Along a dirt road in northern Bullitt County, Andrew Berry, director of conservation for Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, has to crouch down for a closer look.
At his feet, a spatter of white and yellow flowers reaches up through outcroppings of ancient limestone. Blooming smaller than a penny, they're easy to miss, but this is a population of the threatened Kentucky glade cress.
The coy flower blooms within a small yearly window. It's also an umbrella species, and its mere presence here is an indicator of Bernheim's careful management of this land, Berry said. Its protection benefits many other species in the area.
"Every time we lose a little piece of our natural heritage, or our biodiversity, like the Kentucky glade cress, it ripples out. There's other animals that are impacted by it," Berry said. "There's insects and other species that depend upon it, you know, and it's really just a part of what makes an area unique."
But right up the road from this spot, near the northern tip of Bernheim’s property, new developments are cropping up, and the sound of construction equipment abounds. Berry said he's worried these expansions, as well as a proposed highway interchange nearby, could add pressure to nearby populations of the glade cress.
"It's one of those plants that's seeing less and less available habitat," Berry said. "More disturbance is occurring around them."
Just to the south of this population, LG&E is eyeing a strip of land for a new natural gas pipeline, which Berry said would add pressure to glade cress populations on the adjacent land there.
A Bullitt County judge ruled against Bernheim and its conservation easement Friday, allowing LG&E access to the land through eminent domain.
The proposed pipeline route cuts through Bernheim's property and weaves between several areas designated as critical habitat for the Kentucky glade cress. LG&E, however, said its plans take the flower's presence into account and minimize impacts.
"Based on guidance from the USFWS, surveys identifying glade cress were performed when the species was in bloom and the pipeline path was routed to avoid critical glade cress habitat," LG&E said in a statement. The utility added it would take additional measures to spread topsoil and revegetate areas where the flower was identified.
Backing glade cress populations into fewer areas puts the species at greater risk of extinction, Berry said.
Even if a handful of habitats remain protected in perpetuity by groups like Bernheim, incidents like natural disasters could kill those populations. Development within the flower's already minuscule range narrows the species' resilience to disturbance.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's recovery plan — a roadmap for getting the Kentucky glade cress delisted from its threatened status — explains that holding onto just a few strong populations won't be enough, and highlights Louisville's outward sprawl as a key threat to remaining viable habitats.
For now, many of the remaining populations of Kentucky glade cress are of poor resiliency, based on the most recent assessments.
Populations 'are going to go under pavement'
Across Floyds Fork from Broad Run Park, 21st Century Parks Endowment is turning hundreds of acres of land into about 1,000 new homes and multifamily units, most of which have not yet been built.
This development, Oakland Hills, is in or near several spots where Kentucky glade cress has been discovered.
Almost all of the land to be developed has been designated as critical habitat by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“There are definitely populations of glade cress that are going to go under pavement," said Jeff Frank, founder of Friends of Floyds Fork.
And what isn't paved over in development may be killed off by subsequent urban runoff, Frank said. Herbicides that might be used on the hundreds of lawns in Oakland Hills could run down into lower elevations where the glade cress has made its home.
"You’re extinguishing the biological heritage of the area," Frank said.
He also pointed out that for private developers, the flower's Endangered Species Act listing is usually just a suggestion. When a plant is federally listed as "threatened," developmental considerations for its protection are largely voluntary, unless the developer is receiving federal money for the project.
It's unclear whether federal funding would be involved with the Oakland Hills development. 21st Century Parks Endowment did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
21st Century Parks, an adjacent nonprofit to the endowment, is behind the Parklands of Floyds Fork in eastern Jefferson County, covering 4,000 acres up and down Floyds Fork with an emphasis on preserving the area's natural character while providing access to the public.
The organization raises millions of dollars annually to support the Parklands, and has said the proceeds from developing Oakland Hills would go toward further supporting its park project.
Plans have been in the works for years at Oakland Hills, where 21st Century says it "hopes to define a model of what good development around The Parklands can be."
A Bullitt County barbecue of invasive plants
A shelf of dolomite cuts through a glade in northern Bullitt County just uphill from Floyds Fork, providing prime real estate for the Kentucky glade cress.
But this land was overrun by competing invasive plants — at least until a team of state foresters set more than 20 acres ablaze. Frank, standing in the still-smoldering field, gestured around him to the charred remains of tall fescue, multiflora rose and "about everything you could imagine."
After a multiyear process of purchasing the land from a private landowner, the Future Fund nonprofit teamed with the state to burn the invasive plants out and make room for native plants, including the Kentucky glade cress.
The Future Fund has bought thousands of acres around Floyds Fork, with the intention of permanently protecting the land from development. This property, bought 50-50 with the state's Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund, will hold a conservation easement, and eventually include access to the public.
Steve Henry, former lieutenant governor of Kentucky and founder of the Future Fund, said the organization intended to buy this property with or without the potential glade cress habitat.
"We bought it because our goal is to buy as much property on Floyds Fork as possible," Henry said. "That's the only way you're gonna save this creek."
But now that this land is protected, and invasives shown the door, the flower stands a fighting chance here, said Frank, who volunteers with the Future Fund. It could be cropping up around the limestone deposits on this property as early as next spring.
Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. The program funds up to half of corps members’ salaries, but requires a portion also be raised through local community fundraising. To support local environmental reporting in Kentucky, tax-deductible donations can be made at courier-journal.com/RFA.
Learn more about RFA at reportforamerica.org. Reach Connor directly at cgiffin@gannett.com or on Twitter @byconnorgiffin.