Responding to a court order, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to designate critical habitat for three native California plant species on about 66,830 acres of Federal, state, county and private land in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
About 44,315 acres of critical habitat are being proposed for the La Graciosa thistle (Cirsium loncholepis), 8,495 acres for the Lompoc yerba santa (Eriodictyon capitatum), and 14,020 acres for the Gaviota tarplant (Deinandra increscens ssp. villosa).
The plants are found only in coastal areas of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. About
10 percent of the proposed critical habitat occurs on Federal land, primarily at Vandenberg Air Force Base and Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge. Private land accounts for about 85 percent of the designation. The remaining acreage is on state and county lands (see unit description below). The plants have small populations with limited distribution, making them extremely vulnerable to extinction from man-made and natural causes.
"These plants are a unique part of the central California coastal ecosystem," said Steve Thompson, acting manager of the Service
