7/4/2006

Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Scientists are a peculiar lot.  And not just the ones around here.

Up toward the Palouse there's been a discovery, reported by The Associated Press and reprinted in the Herald, that caused Idaho soils scientist Jodi Johnson-Maynard to exclaim:

"It was very exciting. Just to find something we thought, perhaps, was gone is a great thing."

That "something" was described as a giant albino-pale earthworm, a yard long and as big around as a man's pinkie finger.

That it smells like a lily seems to be its greatest aesthetic achievement.

It sounds like an odd thing to get excited about.

But soil experts like the way it carries stuff from the surface down 15 feet or more in its habitat. Such turnover (or turn under) is good for plant fertility, they say.

The giant earthworm may be nearing extinction.

Said to be fairly common at the time of the pioneers, it's now common for years to go by between sightings.

Other worms have taken over for the giants, it seems. So life goes on.

But with the interlocking ways of nature, who knows what else may hang on the fate of the worms.

After all, if there were no tiny, insignificant krill in the sea, there wouldn't be any baleen whales either.