Flower Power : Rare Species Almost Shelved Reagan Library

A rare species of yellow sunflower, only 6 inches tall, briefly stood in the way this month of plans to build a Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in eastern Ventura County.

The fragile sunflower, Pentachaeta lyonii , is known to exist only in 10 sites in the Santa Monica Mountains area, including the scenic hilltop between Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks where the library would be built, said Tim Thomas, chairman of the local chapter of the California Native Plants Society.

“Pentachaeta lyonii is not as romantic as a golden eagle or a massive oak tree,” said Thomas, who has been combing the mountains for the flower since 1978. “But it’s just as important to save it.”

Too Unspecific

The state Fish and Game Commission, which is responsible for protecting endangered plant species, shares Thomas’ opinion. Two weeks ago, it objected to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation’s plan to protect the sunflower and two other rare plants, saying the plan was not specific enough. As a result, a county environmental committee delayed its decision on the library.

The project threatened to remain stalled for weeks because two key state biologists from the department’s Long Beach office went on vacation shortly after denying approval of the plan, said Stephen M. Blitz, attorney for the foundation.

“That bothered everyone,” Blitz said. “Here everyone was working hard to get things resolved only to be held up by the Fish and Game people.”

But the foundation, which hopes to break ground on the project in November, was determined not to let the absence of the state biologists alter its timetable. Working overtime during Labor Day weekend, its consultants “fleshed out” the earlier plan and came up with a new version that satisfied local environmentalists at a Labor Day meeting, Blitz said.

Then it tracked down a state biologist in Sacramento who approved the plan over the phone Wednesday, just hours before the committee of county agencies was scheduled to vote on it. The county committee subsequently approved the project, clearing the way for final approval, which must come from the Ventura County Planning Commission.

The little flower that caused such a big fuss resembles a daisy and, “by itself, is not terribly attractive” until many of them blooming together in the spring form “a golden yellow carpet,” said Thomas Elias, director of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens, which is cultivating the flower in an attempt to save it from extinction.

Last spring, biologists hired by the foundation identified about nine large sunflower patches near a proposed road on the 100-acre library site off Madera Road. The road had been designed to skirt 80% of the flowers but cannot entirely avoid them because the land is too steep to put the road elsewhere, said Jacqueline L. Bowland, staff biologist for McClelland Engineers, a Ventura firm hired by the foundation to design the project.

Under the plan approved Wednesday, the foundation will attempt to replace the flowers it bulldozes, Bowland said. In addition, it will post a bond to cover the costs of shielding the remaining plants with fences and try to cultivate the flowers elsewhere on the property.

The cost of the bond and the length of the monitoring program have not yet been determined, said Carl Morehouse, a county planner in charge of the project.

Although Pentachaeta lyonii has never been cultivated before, there is “a good chance of success” if the work is properly done, said Elias, who also heads the botany department at Claremont Graduate School.

“Imagine our biological system is a brick building made up of different species,” Elias said. “‘Each brick you take away, each species you lose, weakens the whole structure. That’s why this little plant is important to save.”