A photo of a sandhill crane in Connell was taken during the Sandhill Crane Festival earlier this year. According to the WDFW over 35,000 lesser sandhill cranes are a subspecies of sandhill crane. While the subspecies is not currently listed as endangered, it is a species of concern due to habitat reliance.
August 5, 2025
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Keeping an eye on the Basin’s at-risk species
MOSES LAKE – A number of animal species in Washington State are listed as threatened or endangered on the state or federal level including species native to the Columbia Basin region including Grant and Adams Counties. “We protect them on our state land,” said Nicole Jordan from Region 2 of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “There’s different categories, there’s endangered, protected and threatened, there’s protected and sensitive and there’s just protected in general.”