Jon Marvel of Western Watersheds Project has an eloquent quote in the Eugene Register Guard about the continuing demise of this species endemic to north-central Washington:

"This is a population that has existed since before the last Ice Age in Eastern Washington. The loss is something we can never calculate," said Jon Marvel, executive director of the Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project, which works to protect pygmy rabbit populations across the West. "Any time we lose a species it diminishes us all."

Biologists are continuing their captive breeding efforts by crossbreeding the two surviving females with another subspecies, the Idaho pygmy rabbit.

Center for Native Ecosystems is part of a coalition working to save the entire pygmy rabbit species, which used to inhabit huge portions of the Sagebrush Sea across Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.