The Noonday Snail
(peters clarkia nantahala) Alec Hunter
The Endangered Noonday Snail
The Noonday snail is an endangered species from North Carolina. You can find this species in Raleigh near the Nantahala George. Look on wet cliffs near plenty of intersecting streams and rivers. The Noonday Snail was first threatened on July 3, 1978. The reason for this is because of the small distribution of the animal, it never grew in numbers much. Also, places like The Nantahala George, where they were most comfortable, were destroyed because of the expsansion of railroads. The habitat played a part in this by allowing non-native plants like Kudzu and The Japanese Honeysuckle to invade the territory, altering the area's natural plant and animal community.
Protecting the Noonday Snail
Unfortunately, not much has been done in the aid of the Noonday Snail. In 1989, the U.S. spent 39 million dollars to help the 347 endangered species within our states. Only 100 of those dollars were spent on the Noonday Snail. People say this is because the Snail has no importance to us and doesn't provide us with anything special. But in reality, this snail is very important to all of us as well as the plants and animals around us even if it doesn't have anything special about it. All plants and animals are in a linked ecosystem where they survive by each other surviving. If this link is broken then this source is taken away from nature and never seen again.