The recovery plan, developed with the assistance of academic species experts, private conservation groups, and state and federal agencies, is an action guide for conservation agencies and others to protect and recover the species. It was prepared by a senior botanist and species expert in the Natural Heritage and Nongame Research Program of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The plan recommends strategies to help recover the plant: mapping of known and any new populations with identification of landowners; study of nearby groundwater sources and effects on the plants cliffside habitats (for evaluation of the potential for groundwater contamination); permanent site protection mechanisms, along with landowner participation in site protection; regular monitoring of size and welfare of each population; public and landowner education regarding the species and its conservation; and development and maintenance of a genetic bank of individual populations.
Leedys roseroot is a flowering plant in the orpine family. It has succulent stems and leaves with thick, scaly roots; female and male flowers on different plants; and flat-topped flower clusters of red to yellow. Two primary threats facing the plant include security of its cliff face sites -- its very low numbers at very few sites makes it particularly vulnerable to devastation by natural or manmade catastrophes, and the plants dependence on seeping groundwater at its cliff face habitat -- herbicides and other groundwater contaminants are a possible, but unevaluated, threat.
Copies of the Recovery Plan are available from the Fish and Wildlife Reference Service, 5430 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 110, Bethesda, Maryland 20814, telephone 301-492-6403 or
800-582-3421. For a fact sheet and photo of the Leedys roseroot, access the Services Region 3 home page at www.fws.gov/r3pao/eco_serv/endangrd/plants/leedysro.html.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System comprised of more than 500 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands, and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries 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 wildlife agencies.
For further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our home page at: http://www.fws.gov/r3pao/
