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Unaccustomed to cosmopolitan life, the Coachella Valley milk-vetch finds itself and its sandy home amid one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. Living at the edge of southern California’s Colorado Desert, this foot-tall flowering herb is dependent on a perpetually changing, windswept sea of sand to keep its dune habitat healthy. Yet it has no use for the damaging developments that accompany the local population boom, which now blanket this once-thriving landscape.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1998
RANGE: Coachella Valley in Riverside County, California
THREATS: Habitat destruction due to urban development, off-road vehicle use, trampling, wind energy farms, sand and gravel mining, dams, and the introduction of nonnative plants
POPULATION TREND: During years of heavy rainfall, hundreds to thousands of seeds germinate, resulting in bountiful numbers of plants in a single area. Many of these fail to survive. During drought conditions, fewer than 20 plants are often the only survivors throughout the species’ range.
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SAVING THE COACHELLA VALLEY MILK-VETCH
Recognizing that the Coachella Valley milk-vetch is found in fewer than 25 locations in California’s burgeoning Riverside County, the Center filed a lawsuit that led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to grant Endangered Species Act protection for this imperiled desert plant.
Despite unbridled regional growth and the fact that 80 percent of Coachella Valley milk-vetch locations are on unprotected, private lands, the Service initially determined that an accompanying critical habitat designation was not essential to the species’ survival. We filed a lawsuit that resulted in the agency changing its tune and proposing 3,500 acres as protected milk-vetch habitat.
After reviewing public comments regarding its proposal, the Service made a final decision to allocate no critical habitat for the endangered Coachella Valley milk-vetch. We filed a notice of intent to sue, and also initiated several legal challenges against developments that are pending and threaten to annihilate the milk-vetch and its habitat.
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Contact: Ileene Anderson
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