Actions to prevent extinction of the running buffalo clover, a rare plant, are outlined in a revised recovery plan released today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Listed as endangered in 1987, running buffalo clover is found in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri.
The recovery plan provides federal and state natural resource managers and their partners with a blueprint of actions needed to prevent the extinction of the plant and recover it to the point that protection under the Endangered Species Act is no longer needed.
Some of the measures included in the plan are conserving the plant’s habitat, identifying threats, conserving genetic diversity, raising public awareness, and monitoring recovery progress. The plan provides benchmarks to indicate when recovery goals are reached so that running buffalo clover can be removed from protection of the Endangered Species Act. It also specifies when the plant can be downlisted to the less serious “threatened” category.
Running buffalo requires periodic disturbance and a somewhat open habitat, but it cannot tolerate full sun, full shade, or severe disturbance. Historically, running buffalo clover was found in rich soils between open forest and prairie. Those areas were probably maintained by the disturbance caused by bison. Today, the species is found in partially shaded woodlots, mowed areas (lawns, parks, cemeteries), and along streams and trails.
The primary threat to running buffalo clover is habitat alteration. Factors that contribute to this threat include natural forest succession, and subsequent canopy closure, competition by invasive plant species, permanent habitat loss through development or road construction, and possibly the elimination of bison and other large herbivores.
The revised recovery plan for the running buffalo clover is available by contacting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 6950 Americana Parkway, Suite H, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, 43068; phone 615-469-6923; fax 614-469-6919. The plan may also be downloaded from the Service’s website at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/recovery
