Acreage set aside to safeguard rare flowering plants

Nearly 10,000 acres on scattered properties in Jackson and Josephine
counties are being designated as critical habitat to protect two rare
plant species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Following a settlement agreement with the Center for Biological
Diversity, the agency today was scheduled to announce that 9,930 acres
of critical habitat is being designated for the large-flowered woolly
meadowfoam (Limnanthes floccosa ssp. grandiflora) and Cook's lomatium,
also known as Cook's desert parsley (Lomatium cookii).

Both plants were listed as endangered in 2002 and aren't found
anywhere else in the world, a Fish and Wildlife spokesman said. Nearly
10,000 acres has been designated critical habitat for the flowers in
the Agate Desert and Illinois Valley.

More than half the land being designated as critical habitat is in
private ownership, with the rest largely on the Medford District of
the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The woolly meadowfoam grows in the Agate Desert area near White City,
while the desert parsley occurs both on the Agate Desert and the
French Flat area of the Illinois Valley. Neither is found anywhere
else in the world, according to a Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman.

Both species were federally listed as endangered plants in 2002. The
agency in May 2000 had recommended the two rare species be protected
under the Endangered Species Act, which requires critical habitat be
designated for all federally listed species.

However, when the government failed to take steps to designate
critical habitat for the rare plants, the Tucson-based center filed
suit in 2007. In the settlement, the agency had until mid-summer of
this year to designate the acreage needed to provide the plants'
critical habitat.

The Fish and Wildlife Service a year ago proposed designating 11,038
acres of land as critical habitat for the plants but pared that amount
down by 1,108 acres. Part of the rationale for that reduction was that
the area inhabited by the two rare plant species overlaps, said agency
spokeswoman Janet Lebson in Portland.

She confirmed the settlement announcing the 9,930 acres identified as
critical habitat for the plants would be printed today in the Federal
Register.

Roughly half of the proposed acreage already is protected from
development as critical habitat for fairy shrimp, another protected
species. Like the fairy shrimp, both rare plant species rely entirely
on seasonal wetlands and vernal pools.

Both the center and the agency agree the rare plants are threatened by
urban sprawl, off-road vehicle use, invasive non-native plants,
mining, grazing and destruction of wetlands.

The state of Oregon already lists both plant species as endangered,
but state law protects plants only on publicly owned lands.

The economic impact of the decision is unknown. When private land is
listed as critical habitat, landowners have to consult with the agency
only when they need federal funding or permits for activities that
might affect the listed species, an agency spokesman said in an
earlier interview. Areas also can be excluded from protection if the
economic consequences outweigh the benefits of creating the critical
habitat, he said.

"With protection of their vernal pool habitat, these rare Oregon
plants have a chance at survival," said Ileene Anderson, a biologist
with the Center for Biological Diversity. "But the designation falls
short of providing enough habitat to recover the two plants, which is
the primary goal of the Endangered Species Act."

The center had pushed for all rare plant locations and habitat to be
included, she said.

"The purpose of critical habitat is to help species recover," Anderson
said. "Critical habitat must be robust enough to include areas for the
plants to move into, so that their number increase to levels where
they are no longer threatened and endangered."

However, the identification of critical habitat for the rare species
is a positive development, she stressed.

"Designating critical habitat will add a crucial layer of protection
and promote the expansion and eventual recovery of these species," she
said.


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Woolly meadowfoam

(Limnanthes floccosa ssp. grandiflora)

Grows only in the Agate Desert near White City.

Cook's lomatium or Cook's desert parsley

(Lomatium cookii)

Found only in the Agate Desert and Illinois Valley.
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