Murals Showcase Rare Species

A 175-foot long wall in Knoxville, Tenn., was transformed into a mural promoting the protection of endangered native species from habitat destruction.It is the largest mural completed by the Center for Biological Diversity’s Endangered Species Mural Project and Oregon-based artist Roger Peet.

The Knoxville project features pink mucket pearly mussels along with other local endangered species such as Cumberlandian combshell, sheepnose and rabbitsfoot mussels and fish like the Citico darter and blotchside logperch.

The Center also completed a similar mural in Berea, Ky., featuring the white fringeless orchid, which is threatened by logging, development and climate change. Only growing in forested areas with wet soil, the orchid is already extirpated in North Carolina, but can be found in roughly 60 locations in Kentucky and surrounding states.

— Otto Solberg