| A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to designate critical habitat
for the Lane Mountain Milkvetch and seven other rare plants following a suit brought by the California
Native Plant Society and the Center for Biological Diversity. Most of the known Lane Mountain
Milkvetch plants share their habitat with the desert tortoises in the proposed Fort Irwin expansion
area. The California Native Plant Society and the Center for Biological Diversity press release is below.
NEWS RELEASE: for immediate release Monday, July 8, 2002
JUDGE ORDERS CRITICAL HABITAT PROTECTION FOR EIGHT IMPERILED PLANTS OF THE CALIFORNIA
FLORISTIC PROVINCE
SAN DIEGO - A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to designate
critical habitat for eight imperiled plant species in San Diego, Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange,
Riverside, San Bernardino, Inyo and Mono counties of southern and eastern California listed as
threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The California Native Plant
Society (CNPS) and the Center for Biological Diversity (Center) sued FWS November 15, 2001 asking
that the agency designate critical habitat.
This legal victory is part of an ongoing campaign of CNPS and the Center to work with agencies
and scientists to improve state and federal management, conservation and recovery of imperiled
plants.
Critical habitat designation identifies the habitat that is essential to the survival and
recovery of listed species and provides mechanisms for protecting that habitat from destruction or
degradation. The Endangered Species Act mandates that critical habitat by designated for all
federally listed species, allowing only limited exceptions. Despite its conservation value, and
despite legal requirements, recent administrations have avoided critical habitat designation. Only
11% of federally listed species in the U.S. have designated critical habitat.
The problem is most severe for plants. In California critical habitat has been designated for
less than 5% of federally listed plants as compared with fully 28% of California's federally listed
animals.
"Critical habitat is essential to species survival and recovery," said Daniel R.
Patterson, Desert Ecologist with the Center. "Habitat protection is a must for conservation of
unique places like the Algodones Sand Dunes, where the Peirson's milkvetch is endangered by BLM's
plan to re-open 50,000 acres to off-road vehicles."
Neglect of plants in land management makes no sense, say scientists, because plants are the
foundations of all ecosystems. Any program to conserve animals such as the golden eagle, desert
tortoise, California gnatcatcher, or California condor must be based on conservation of the native
plants these animals depend on for survival. Furthermore, healthy native plant communities provide
critical ecosystem services we all need to survive. "Plants generate the oxygen we breathe,
clean the water we drink, create the food we eat, as well as provide food and habitat for our native
wildlife," said Jim Andre, a Botanist and Director of the University of California-Riverside's
Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center. "We simply cannot successfully maintain a
healthy environment without protecting native plants."
The eight plants live on federal public land or in areas under federal jurisdiction, such as
wetlands. "The law makes no provision for critical habitat to affect management of private
lands in the absence of federal involvement" said Dr. Emily Roberson of CNPS, "Critical
habitat designations improve land management by federal agencies, particularly in our rivers and
wetlands and on the millions of acres of publicly owned National Forests, BLM public lands and
wildlife refuges in California. Critical habitat designation is also one of the best ways we have to
improve our understanding and management of rare species."
The court order comes amid a torrent of new studies showing declines in the diversity and health
of native plants. Recent reports by the World Conservation Union and the Nature Conservancy found
that at least 30% of native flowering plants in the U.S. are currently at risk of extinction.
CNPS recently released its sixth edition of the Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of
California, which shows 1438 of California's native plant species (nearly 25%) are at risk.
"Scientists all over the world are raising the alarm about the current rate of
extinction," said Illeene Anderson, CNPS Southern California Botanist. "It is imperative
that scientists and conservation advocates work with governments to conserve our remaining species
and their habitats. That is what this victory is about."
The eight imperiled plants for which critical habitat will be designated in California:
Lane Mountain milk-vetch - Astragalus jaegerianus (Endangered) Location: Only known to
occur at four western Mojave Desert sites north to northeast of Barstow CA, near the Army's Ft.
Irwin tank base, in San Bernardino County. The plants at each site are widely scattered.
Threats: Proposed U.S. Army Ft. Irwin expansion and related tank training, military vehicle trespass
on to off-limits BLM lands, dry wash recreational gold mining, off-road vehicle use, increasing fire
frequency and associated fire suppression activities.
Coachella valley milk-vetch - Astragalus lentiginosus var. coachellae (Endangered)
Location: Loose wind-blown or alluvial sands on dunes or flats in the Coachella Valley area of the
Sonoran Desert, near Palm Springs CA, Riverside County.
Threats: Urban sprawl in the Coachella Valley which directly destroys lands on which they occur or
reduces the source and transport of blow sands that maintain its habitats. Roads and off-road
vehicle use.
Peirson's milk-vetch - Astragalus magdalenae var. peirsonii (Threatened) Location:
Algodones Sand Dunes, Sonoran Desert of eastern Imperial County CA.
Threats: Intensive off-road vehicle use. Pipelines and water projects.
Fish slough milk-vetch - Astragalus lentiginosus var. piscinensis (Threatened)
Location: Great Basin Desert northwest of Bishop CA, Inyo and Mono Counties. Threats: Trampling and
grazing by cattle, roads and off-road vehicle use, modification of wetlands, alteration of slough
hydrology, the Red Willow Dam and related expansion of Fish Slough Lake.
For more detailed information see the FWS 10/6/98 final listing rule covering these four desert
species: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=1998_register&docid=fr06oc98-26.pdf
Munz's onion - Allium munzii (Endangered) Location: 13 populations in Western Riverside
County CA, including the Gavilan Hills, Harford Springs County Park, Paloma Valley, Skunk Hollow,
Domenigoni Hills, Bachelor Mountain and the Elsinore Mountains.
San Jacinto Valley crownscale - Atriplex coronata var. notatior (Endangered)
Location: In 1998, 11 population centers were known, primarily associated with the San Jacinto River
and Old Salt Creek tributary drainages in the San Jacinto, Perris, Menifee and Elsinore Valleys of
western Riverside County CA.
Thread-leaved brodiaea - Brodiaea filifolia (Threatened) Location: In 1998, 37 populations
were known in southern California. 15 populations in the cities of Vista, San Marcos and Carlsbad in
northern San Diego County. The remaining 22 populations are scattered within Orange, Los Angeles,
Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties. Threats (includes the 3 inland species above): One
or more of the following: habitat destruction and fragmentation from agricultural and urban
development, pipeline construction, alteration of wetland hydrology by draining or excessive
flooding, channelization, off-road vehicle use, livestock grazing, weed abatement, fire suppression
practices (including disking or plowing) and competition from invasive weeds.
Spreading navarretia - Navarretia fossalis (Threatened) Location: In 1998, fewer than 30
populations existed in the U.S., primarily in vernal pool ecosystems. Nearly 60% are concentrated in
three locations: Otay Mesa in southern San Diego County, along the San Jacinto River in western
Riverside County, and near Hemet in Riverside County. Threats: On-going degradation of vernal pools
and their destruction due to urbanization, agricultural practices, off-road vehicles, flood control
and widespread habitat loss.
For more detailed information see the FWS 10/13/98 final listing rule covering these four inland
species: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=1998_register&docid=fr13oc98-23.pdf | 
