External Affairs Program
Fish
and Wildlife Service Reopens Comment Period on
Public Review of Draft Recovery Plan for Two SF Plants
July 9, 2002
02-067
Contact:
Patricia Foulk ( 916/414-6566)
Jim Nickles (916/414-6572) Sacramento, California
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE REOPENS COMMENT PERIOD ON PUBLIC REVIEW OF DRAFT RECOVERY PLAN FOR TWO SF PLANTS
SACRAMENTO, California - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reopened the comment period for its draft recovery plan for two rare San Francisco peninsula plants–the endangered San Francisco lessingia and Raven’s manzanita. The new deadline for comments is September 9, 2002. The wildlife agency first issued the draft plan for public review in December 2001.
The plan features two federally endangered plants, San Francisco lessingia, an annual herb in the aster family, and Raven’s manzanita (also known as Presidio manzanita), a rare evergreen creeping shrub restricted to a few outcrops of mostly serpentine rock. San Francisco lessingia grows on sparsely vegetated coastal dunes and exists at only six sites in the Presidio and one site in Daly City. Only one genetic individual remains of the Raven’s manzanita. This "mother" plant is located in the Presidio with propagated clones of this plant growing near the mother plant and other serpentine locations. Habitat loss is the primary reason for the decline of these plants.
Three recovery units for San Francisco lessingia are proposed including lands located on the Presidio and owned and managed by the National Park Service (NPS) and the Presidio Trust; NPS-managed lands at Fort Funston; and a reserve on private and municipal land in Daly City; and smaller "satellite" reserves on undeveloped private and municipal lands in San Francisco. The principal reserve for Raven’s manzanita remains the site of the original plant in the Presidio. Other proposed reserves for Raven’s manzanita are along the Presidio’s north shore landslides, outcrops and bluffs; and multiple hilltop bedrock outcrops on municipal and private lands in San Francisco.
Among the proposals included in the plan is the removal of non-native trees within the footprint of the Presidio Recovery Unit. This proposed tree removal would have esthetic impacts: it would open up views of the Golden Gate and rolling dune topography with extensive wildflower displays, but it would also make areas currently screened from view visible, and it would remove dark evergreen horizons familiar for generations. The plan does not propose to exclude public access from restored habitats; instead it recommends ways to integrate public access and habitat management by developing "rotational trails" (paths that alternate between open periods with disturbed, trampled sand, and temporary closures to allow natural revegetation) at both the Presidio and Fort Funston recovery units.
Several other federally listed species that share habitats with these two plant species are also addressed in this plan. They include the beach layia, Presidio clarkia, Marin dwarf-flax, Myrtle’s silverspot butterfly and the bay checkerspot butterfly. In addition, the plan focuses on the needs of 16 plant species of concern--uncommon to rare plants known to be at risk of local or regional extinction or outright extinction, but which are currently neither candidates for listing nor proposed for listing as threatened or endangered. The conservation needs of 17 additional species of local or regional significance are also examined.
The goal of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve the ecosystems upon which listed species depend and to recover species to levels where protection under the Act is no longer necessary. Recovery plans, which are blueprints for actions by Federal and State agencies and private organizations, do not obligate the expenditure of funds or require that actions be implemented.
Copies of the draft recovery plan are available by contacting the Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office at the address below or by calling the Recovery Coordinator at (916) 414-6600.
Comments are invited until September 9, 2002, and need to be submitted to the Field Supervisor, Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, 2800 Cottage Way, W-2605, Sacramento, California 95825.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses nearly 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
Contact
us: Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Room W-2605,
Sacramento, California 95825
Phone (916) 414-6600 ~ FAX (916) 414-6713 ~ email: fw1sacweb@fws.gov
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a part of the United States Government
Department of Interior
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