US eyes rare flower habitat amid Nevada lithium mine fight

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating critical habitat for a Nevada wildflower it intends to list as endangered. The move comes amid a conflict over the flower and a mine to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles critical to the Biden administration’s plans to combat climate change. The agency proposed designating critical habitat for Tiehm’s buckwheat on a high-desert ridge 200 miles southeast of Reno. It’s the only place in the world the wildflower is known to exist. It’s also the site where Ioneer USA plans to build a lithium mine. The service says the 900 acres it proposed for habitat designation is “essential” to the plant’s survival. Ioneer says it doesn’t affect their plans.