Fish and Wildlife authorizes plan to save threatened plant

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.

Officials hope the plan could stave off having to list the Tahoe Yellowcress as an endangered species.

Experts say the tiny plant only grows on a narrow strip along the lake's shoreline. Its habitat has dwindled in recent years because of high water levels.

Working with several land-use agencies at the lake, biologist Dennis Murphy of the University of Nevada, Reno and botanist Bruce Pavlik of Mills College in Oakland, Calif., will prepare the document.

"Our foremost goal will be to come up with a strategy that will ensure the persistence of the species," Murphy told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The yellowcress has been identified as a plant in trouble for years. A survey in late August found it growing in only 14 places, some containing only a few plants.

Dissatisfied with the success of previous conservation efforts, Fish and Wildlife officials proposed listing the plant under the Endangered Species Act, a move which, if finalized, would give the agency full authority in the matter.

If listing does occur, the strategy to be drafted by Murphy and Pavlik would serve as a recovery plan. But officials are hoping the plan, which Murphy expects to finish in about eight months, will make endangered species status for the yellowcress unnecessary.

"We'd prefer to do up-front stuff that will prevent the listing," said Randi Thompson, spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife in Reno.

Until now, Thompson said, land managers at Lake Tahoe have failed to adequately address the problem of a declining yellowcress population and it's hoped the threat of listing will serve as an impetus to do better.

"Nothing has materialized to this point," Thompson said. "After a couple of years of watching the species decline, we kind of decided to wield the big stick."

Working with the two scientists in preparing the plan will be the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, U.S. Forest Service and the California Tahoe Conservancy, among others.

Steps to protect the plant could include closing some beach areas that would provide ideal habitat, a move that might generate some controversy if public access is substantially affected.

Some also worry Lake Tahoe's water levels could be ordered lowered and downstream users affected, but Fish and Wildlife officials say that highly controversial action is off the table.

Murphy believes fairly aggressive action is needed to save the Tahoe yellowcress but is encouraged over recent developments.

"This thing may be so close to extinction that no matter how hard we try, we're battling against fate," Murphy said. "The other possibility is we can secure the existing population and propose a schedule of actions that anticipate future threats and start to remediate the decline.

"Everyone is saying we want to do what has to be done to save this species."