Money Well Spent

Environmental groups sought endangered species protection for 32 species of Pacific Northwest snails and slugs Thursday.

The species include organisms such as the evening field slug, basalt juga and keeled jumping slug -- the last known for its habit of flipping its tail to jump off vegetation or logs as a way of escaping predators. The basalt juga is a river snail that exists only in low-elevation springs in and around the Columbia River Gorge.