Fear for the Flora : U.S. Seeks to Put 16 Channel Island Plants on the Endangered Species List

Sixteen plants that eke out an existence on the Channel Islands and nowhere else on Earth may become the newest additions to the nation’s list of 759 endangered species of plants and animals.

With obscure names such as fringepod, munchkin dudleya, alumroot and bush-mallow, the plants will not be missed in most households if they go extinct.

But the dwindling populations of these shrubs, succulents and herbs on the wind-swept islands off the Ventura County coast are irreplaceable links in the island ecosystems, said Connie Rutherford, botanist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ventura.

“The islands represent this whole complex web of interactions among plants, animals, soil and hydrology, all working together,” she said. “When we start removing pieces one by one, at some point the whole system fails.”

In addition, she said, those plants, many of which are located on Channel Islands National Park lands, are part of our nation’s heritage.

“The national parks are supposed to maintain that heritage for the public,” she said.

The 16 plants, some with tiny pink or yellow flowers only half an inch across, were proposed for the list by the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ventura office under the Endangered Species Act as a means of protecting their remaining populations. They are found on Santa Rosa, Anacapa, Santa Cruz and San Miguel islands.

Three more plants found on Santa Catalina or San Clemente islands farther south were proposed for listing at the same time by the agency’s Carlsbad office.

Five of the plants have only one population, or one cluster, where they exist. Most of the others have fewer than 10 populations.

The proposed listings are part of a settlement of lawsuits brought by the California Native Plant Society and the Fund for Animals that challenged the agency’s timeline for listing 160 plants in California and more across the nation.

The proposals, which are now out for public and peer review, would normally become final one year after being published in the Federal Register. In this case, the listing would become final July 25, 1996.

But a congressional moratorium on final listings may hold that process up, Rutherford said. Nevertheless, even the proposal for listing lends the plants a measure of protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The owners of land where the plants are found must confer with the Fish and Wildlife Service on any current or upcoming projects that could affect the populations.

The landowners include Channel Islands National Park, which owns Santa Rosa, Anacapa and part of Santa Cruz islands; the U.S. Navy, which owns San Miguel Island, and the Nature Conservancy, a private agency that owns most of Santa Cruz Island.

The conservancy is already taking steps to protect the plant populations on Santa Cruz by developing a long-range conservation plan and analyzing information from a five-year plant monitoring study, said the group’s spokeswoman, Diane Devine.

“But the biggest threat to those populations is the feral pigs on the island,” Devine said. “We have one area that is pig-free, fenced off to let us see how [the area of plants] reacts after the animals are removed.”

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Endangered Plants

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed 16 plants from the northern Channel Islands for listing as endangered species. Their common names:

Name: Hoffmann’s rockcress

Description: perennial herb

Location: Santa Cruz

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Name: Santa Rosa Island manzanita

Description: shrub

Location: Santa Rosa

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Name: Island barberry

Description: shrub/vine

Location: Santa Cruz

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Name: Soft-leaved Indian paintbrush

Description: perennial

Location: Santa Rosa

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Name: Santa Rosa Island dudleya

Description: succulent

Location: Santa Rosa

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Name: Munchkin dudleya

Description: succulent

Location: Santa Rosa

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Name: Santa Cruz Island dudleya

Description: succulent

Location: Santa Cruz

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Name: Island bedstraw

Description: shrub

Location: San Miguel, Santa Cruz

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Name: Hoffmann’s gilia

Description: annual

Location: Santa Rosa

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Name: Island rush-rose

Description: shrub

Location: Santa Cruz, Catalina

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Name: Island alumroot

Description: perennial

Location: Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa

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Name: Santa Cruz Island bush mallow

Description: shrub

Location: Santa Cruz

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Name: Santa Cruz Island malacothrix

Description: annual

Location: Santa Cruz

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Name: Island malacothrix

Description: annual

Location: Santa Cruz, Anacapa

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Name: Island phacelia

Description: annual

Location: San Miguel

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Name: Santa Cruz Island fringepod

Description: annual

Location: Santa Cruz

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An additional three plants proposed for listing are:

Name: Santa Catalina Island mountain-mahogany

Description: shrub/tree

Location: Catalina

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Name: San Clemente Island wood-star

Description: perennial herb

Location: Santa Cruz Island

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Name: Santa Cruz Island rockcress

Description: perennial herb

Location: San Clemente Island