© 1998 Streamline Publications

In an odd turn of events that makes greater political than ecological sense, protection for endangered animals and plants is being viewed differently in California. According to the California Native Plant Society, the federal Endangered Species Act protects animals on both federal lands and everywhere else they may exist.

May I suggest the Lungren Salad—a sprightly mix of endangered greens and threatened vegetation with an unregulated dressing.

Federally listed plants, on the other hand, are given no federal protection anywhere but on federal lands. To fill this gap in protection, the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) protects plants not growing on federal lands as well as listed animals.

In June of this year, California Attorney General Dan Lungren issued an opinion that suggests CESA protection may be removed from plants. Instead, he would apply the Native Plant Protection Act of 1977 (NPPA) which contains language that, in the absence of CESA protections, would allow broad exemptions for the plants to be taken—that is, destroyed.

Land Use Politics

What could be the motivation for such an opinion reducing state authority over rare and endangered plants? Should Mr. Lungren’s interpretation of the act become law it would open a virtually unregulated highway to development that steamrollers rare vegetation without the mitigation that is now required. Landowners and developers could take advantage of these weakened protections for state-listed threatened and endangered plants and be unhindered in subdividing, clearing or building on the land.

California has mandated conservation of rare plant species, considering their preservation equal in importance to that of endangered animals. These policies have been in place since 1985 when CESA became effective. CESA replaced NPPA while including NPPA-listed plants under the new law’s protection.

CESA is the only real protection for threatened and endangered plant species—80 percent of which are on nonfederal lands in California.

But CESA did not place a brick wall in front of all development, rather, it too listed specific exemptions for incidental taking of such plants in timber, mining and agriculture operations, and as a result of inadvertent or ordinarily negligent acts. The new law was not monolithic but did prevent wholesale, wanton destruction of rare and endangered plants and animals regardless of where they were found and where federal law did not apply.

The proposed bifurcation of CESA protections makes little sense when one considers that elimination of such plants will affect the animals who rely on them as a local food source.

REINCARNATION

In a miraculous reversal of extinction, a plant has returned from the dead after 30 years. The elusive Ventura Marsh Milkvetch (Astragalus pycnostachyus var. lanosissimus) raised its head from an oil-polluted sand dune—just in front of the bulldozer blade—setting off efforts to list the plant on both California and federal endangered species lists. When the plant was previously thought to be extinct, there was no reason to list it as rare or endangered so it has no statutory protection.

The discovery came about as an environmental impact report (EIR) was being drafted for a residential subdivision and artificial lake near the City of Oxnard—as reported in the July/August ‘98 LEAF-let. This occurrence is the only known population of the milkvetch. The draft EIR proposes that the plant population be entirely removed and relocated to a greenhouse in the California Central Valley town of Turlock.

AN ENVIRONMENTAL HIT

T he Eastside Reservoir—the giant Metropolitan Water District project in the Domenigoni Valley of Riverside County—is by some accounts, a model of cooperation. Aside from cost overruns, typical of such massive projects, there is much in which its management can take pride. An Engineering News Record article reports project manager Dennis G. Majors “...wants to leave a legacy of environmentally sensitive water resources development... he insists on integrating environmental preservation and recreation planning into the nation’s largest earthmoving project.”

Majors has endeared himself to those concerned with the environment, and other interests, by studying their diverse concerns and addressing them in initial project planning. Endangered species, in a parade led by the kangaroo rat, began to be identified in ever-increasing numbers—any one of which could have shut down the $2.2 billion construction.

Proactive Approach

In a pact with U. S. Fish and Wildlife, Riverside County, the State of California and the MWD, a new approach to habitat mitigation under the Endangered Species Act developed—a multispecies reserve. Expanding on single species mitigation, this approach allows governmental agencies to approve construction even in the event previously unidentified endangered species were discovered.

Majors, who has been with MWD since 1987, has garnered praise from skeptics and has been identified as a forward thinker who has moved the giant water agency into a new era of environmental awareness and concern. He has demonstrated that massive projects can be brought to fruition while satisfying environmentalists.

Scheduled to be completed in 1999, the project will have taken a mere 12 years—site investigation to construction end. It will result in a lake 4-1/2 by 2 miles holding 800,000 acre feet of water with about half of that as an earthquake reserve supply for six Southern California counties.

PROJECT STOPPED

Ventura County Judge Barbara Lane halted an amphitheater and golf course project near Camarillo, citing an inadequate environmental impact report.

She ruled the EIR failed to fully address the project’s effect on wetlands and the impact on Dudleya verityi, an endangered plant species. The lawsuit was filed by the Environmental Defense Center and the Native Plant Society.

Please turn to Waterborne Pollution for information on pollution affecting Calleguas Creek and Mugu Lagoon and what’s being done about it.

See also Mugu Lagoon: A Study in Erosion.

Choose from more articles from Albright Seed Company. All our products come with an extra ingredient at no extra cost—30 years' experience.

Seed Mixes: Wildflowers | Turfgrasses | Reclamation / Erosion

Other Products | New! Erosion Control Blankets

Plant Database | BMPs - Cost vs. Benefit | Inventory | Request Information
About S&S Seeds, Inc. | S&S Services | Newsletter | Contact Us | Home

Retail Sales/Small Orders

S&S Seeds, Inc. P.O. Box 1275 Carpinteria, CA 93014-1275 (805) 684-0436 (805) 684-2798 fax

© 1998-2004 by S&S Seeds. All Rights Reserved. Text, graphics, and HTML code are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission. Web Development: CogniText.