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A daunting one-third of plant species in the United States are at risk of extinction. This staggering figure includes the San Diego ambrosia, a tenacious little perennial herb that clings by its rhizomes to only a handful of remaining sites in southern California. The ambrosia primarily inhabits grasslands and drainages in a small segment of San Diego County — an area that is today shared with a sprawling metropolis 3 million humans strong.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 2002
CRITICAL HABITAT: None
RECOVERY PLAN: None
RANGE: San Diego and Riverside counties in southern California, as well as the northern state of Baja California, Mexico
THREATS: Urban sprawl, agricultural expansion, livestock grazing, off-road vehicles, pesticide spraying, road construction, and the introduction of exotic species
POPULATION TREND: Fewer than 15 viable populations remain, down from 49 as recently as 1999. Of these, the long-term viability of seven populations is questionable, and another consists of only one plant.
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SAVING THE SAN DIEGO AMBROSIA
The road to recovery for the San Diego ambrosia has been slow going at best. Back in 1978, the Smithsonian Institution submitted a petition to list the ambrosia as a threatened species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service repeatedly delayed protection, allowing the number of surviving plants to dwindle toward extinction.
Nearly two decades later, the Center and the California Native Plant Society jointly submitted a second citizen petition — this time to list the ambrosia as endangered. It took the initiative of this new petition, plus two follow-up lawsuits, before these imperiled plants were granted protection under the Endangered Species Act.
While numerous ambrosia populations had disappeared in the years since the original Smithsonian petition, this species was one of the lucky ones. Astonishingly, more than 30 ambrosias have gone extinct while waiting to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
In December 2007, the Center sued the Service to force critical habitat designation, simultaneously challenging corruption-tainted critical habitat decisions made for 12 other species. About four months later, the Service agreed to finalize a critical habitat designation for the San Diego ambrosia by the summer of 2010.
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Contact:
Ileene Anderson
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