The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces the availability of the final recovery plan for Holy Ghost ipomopsis (Ipomopsis sancti-spiritus), an endangered plant known from only one site in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of north-central New Mexico. The species was listed as endangered on March 23, 1994 under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Holy Ghost ipomopsis is a short-lived herbaceous perennial plant that grows to about 2 feet in height and has numerous pink flowers. Plants grow in bare mineral soils on relatively steep west to southwest-facing slopes in open conifer forest. A single population of an estimated 2,500 plants survives which occupy’s about 200 acres along a U.S. Forest Service road. Impacts from road maintenance, recreation, and catastrophic forest fire are immediate concerns for the small population. Much of the ipomopsis’s remaining suitable habitat and its long term existence is threatened by the direct and indirect effects of residential development, maintenance projects on its habitat in the Santa Fe National Forest.
The final recovery plan calls for restoring Holy Ghost ipomopsis to a secure status through continued Federal protection and management, research to understand its biological and ecological needs, and establishment of four more populations in suitable habitat in the upper Pecos River Basin. The final plan was signed by the Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the State of New Mexico. The three agencies are already working together to select the first site for reintroduction
Copies of the final plan can be obtained by writing the Field Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office, 2105 Osuna Road, NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87113, or by phoning (505) 346-2525 or at the Service’s web site at http://southwest.fws.gov/htopic.html.
