Subject: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#66
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SOUTHWEST BIODIVERSITY ALERT
#66
4/11/97
SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
silver city,
tucson, phoenix, san
diego
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CALIFORNIA
SUPPORTS EFFORTS TO LIST RARE PLANT AS ENDANGERED,
QUESTIONS ADEQUACY OF SAN
DIEGO MSCP
In early March, the Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity,
Endangered Habitats League, and the California Native Plant
Society
filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for
refusing
to list a rare southern California plant, the short-leaved
dudleya,
as endangered. The agency claimed that the plant was
adequately
protected because it is to be "covered" by San Diego
County's
Multiple Species Conservation Plan.
On March 31, 1997, the
California Department of Parks and
Recreation sent a letter to the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service
saying they disagree:
"...current levels of
protection of D. brevifolia at Torrey Pines State
Reserve (TPSR) and future
levels of protection within the MSCP may
not be adequate to ensure the
long-term persistence of this
species...Without new recruitment to the [TPSR]
population via
flowering and seed-set, local populations are ultimately
destined for
extinction..Funds dedicated to the preservation of D. brevifolia
by the
City of San Diego (for MSCP reserve) and by the State (TPSR)
are
likely to be inadequate for the development and implementation of
an
effective management plan for all extant populations. Therefore,
the
following actions on the part of your agency seem prudent:
1)
reconsider providing federal protection for D. brevifolia, with
the
recognition that habitat protection under the City of San Diego
and
State Parks may not be enough to "protect" this species beyond
the
simple, physical sense of the word; 2) support activities such
as
research, population mapping, and seed collection for
long-term
storage, with dedicated funding; and 3) lead the development of
an
inter-agency management plan which simultaneously considers all
extant
populations, with the ultimate goal being long-term survival of
this rare
plant, rather than the limited goal of physical protection of
isolated,
remnant populations."
The USFWS has unreasonably stymied ESA protection
for dudleya
for 22 years. It was first recommended for listing in 1975 by
the
Smithsonian Institute. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took
no
action, however, until Southwest Center ecologist David Hogan filed
an
E.S.A. petition in 1990. The 1993 proposal to list the dudleya was
two years
late. Thereafter, the Fish and Wildlife Service took no
further steps to
protect the rare plan until ordered to do so by a
federal judge. In October,
1996, the agency declined to list dudleya
because it was to be"covered" by
the not-yet-approved San Diego
Multi- Species Conservation Plan.
The
short-leaved dudleya is a tiny succulent found at only six
isolated
populations along the northern San Diego County coastline.
Much like its
neighbor Torrey Pines and southern maritime chaparral,
dudleya is a
pleistocene relict- is one of the rarest and most imperiled
plant species in
southern California. All remaining populations are
threatened by trampling,
and the largest population is threatened by
development on Carmel
Mountain.
Kieran
Suckling
ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive
Director
520.733.1391 phone
Southwest Center for Biological
Diversity 520.733.1404 fax
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/sw-center
pob 17839, tucson, az 85731