Parachute penstemon (Penstemon debilis) is among the rarest plants in North America, known only from five locations along the cliffs of the Roan Plateau in Garfield County, Colorado. It is a beautiful plant with large white to pale purple-lavender flowers, and is restricted to steep, sparsely vegetated, oil shale slopes of the Green River Formation. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has long recognized that Parachute penstemon meets the criteria for listing as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act but has refused to take any action to protect it.

Unfortunately, in the eight years since the Fish and Wildlife Service first determined that this native wildflower needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act, threats to its survival have only grown. The Roan Plateau, where the penstemon makes its home, is one of the top four biological hotspots in western Colorado, and the top and cliffs where the Parachute penstemon live are one of the few places in the area that have not been turned into an industrial energy field. But the oil and gas industry and the Bureau of Land Management have targeted the Roan Plateau for increased drilling, and the pace of energy development is expected to increase even more. This could be devastating for Parachute penstemon.

Center for Native Ecosystems, along with the Colorado Native Plant Society and two independent botanists, submitted an Endangered Species Act listing petition for Parachute penstemon in March 2004. We are also working with the Save Roan Plateau coalition to protect the top of the Plateau from the devastating effects of oil and gas drilling.