Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #66

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