DeBeque phacelia (Phacelia submutica), a tiny summer annual with white flowers and bright red stems, is found only in one area of western Colorado. It grows no farther than ten miles in any direction from the town of DeBeque, south of South Shale Ridge and southwest of the Roan Plateau. DeBeque phacelia has been a Candidate for Endangered Species Act listing for 25 years, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service still has yet to officially recognize it as an endangered species. In the meantime, its habitat has been rapidly degraded by oil and gas drilling, off-road vehicle riding, and livestock trampling, and its risk of extinction has soared.

DeBeque phacelia grows on soil that comes from only a single geologic formation and is typically found on steep hillsides in the mud cracks on the surface of this clay soil. This species shares some of its range with DeBeque milkvetch, another rare wildflower Center for Native Ecosystems has petitioned for listing as Threatened or Endangered. Because it is an annual species, it relies on a healthy bank of seeds in the top few centimeters of soil to survive from year to year. As more of its habitat is converted to gas well pads, access roads, and dirt bike routes, DeBeque phacelia seeds in the soil are crushed or washed away. Though its habitat is extremely rare and mostly found on Bureau of Land Management land, the BLM continues to allow oil and gas drilling in most places the DeBeque phacelia grows. In November of 2005, BLM leased South Shale Ridge and most of the last of the DeBeque phacelia’s habitat for oil and gas drilling.