The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced availability of a draft recovery plan for the threatened dwarf lake iris, a species native to the Great Lakes coastline of Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada.
The recovery plan provides federal, state and tribal 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. Recovery actions focus on conserving the iris’ habitat through a variety of protection strategies, including the preparation of management and monitoring plans. Additional efforts will focus on improving understanding of dwarf lake iris ecology.
Listed as threatened by the Service in 1988, the dwarf lake iris occurs along the shorelines of northern lakes Huron and Michigan, where it ranges from the Door Peninsula of northeastern Wisconsin eastward through the Mackinaw Straits region of Michigan and then south to the Bruce Peninsula of Ontario. Dwarf lake iris typically grows in shallow soil over moist sand, gravel and beach rubble, and limestone crevices. Dwarf lake iris is vulnerable to both natural processes, such as shading from forest growth, and human activities that can modify or destroy its habitat.
Copies of the Recovery Plan for the dwarf lake iris are available from the East Lansing, Michigan Field Office, 2651 Coolidge Road, Suite 101, East Lansing, Michigan 48823. The plan may also be downloaded from the Service’s website at:
