The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking volunteers for help in locating known and new populations of Pitchers thistle, a rare dune plant listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The Service will conduct a survey on Thursday, July 15, at Hoffmaster State Park, in Muskegon, Michigan. Volunteers are asked to meet at 9:30 a.m. at the Gillette Visitors Center at the park.
The Pitchers thistle is found only along the beaches and grassland dunes of Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron. About 90 percent of the 183 known Pitchers thistle populations occur in Michigan, most of them along the northern Lake Michigan shoreline. It colonizes patches of open, windblown areas, and then gradually declines as the density of vegetation and ground litter increase over time. The species is threatened by destruction of its beach habitat.
Pitchers thistle is among a group of plants and animals -- including the threatened dwarf lake iris and Houghtons goldenrod, the endangered piping plover, and the rare Lake Huron locust and Lake Huron tansy -- found along Great Lakes shorelines. These shores are highly desirable for prime residential and resort sites and for recreation. Development and other activities have destroyed, altered or disturbed shoreline areas and resulted in declines of shoreline species.
Public and private efforts to recover the Pitchers thistle are already underway. State and federal agencies and private citizens in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin are protecting and managing many occupied sites. A Canadian team is in the process of developing a plan for the protection of Pitchers thistle and its habitat in Ontario.
The Pitchers thistle flowers only once in its lifetime, generally after a 5- to 8-year juvenile stage. The stems and leaves of juveniles and adults are bluish-green in color and covered with woolly-white hairs. The flowering stems are up to 3 feet tall, with flowering heads of a cream or pinkish color.
For more information on the Pitchers thistle and the survey at Hoffmaster State Park, contact Tameka Dandridge at the Services East Lansing Field Office at 517-351-8315.
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 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 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 and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
