Known for its white and purple flowers with a yellow disk, the beach layia is a small sunflower that’s only found in California’s coastal dunes.
Although the flowers were once found dotting the dunes from Lompoc’s Vandenberg Space Force Base to Humboldt County, they began to die off with land development, invasive species, livestock grazing, and off-road vehicle erosion, said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. By 1992, the flower was classified as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act due to habitat loss and a dwindling population. Once classified as endangered, a species will receive a recovery plan that protects the population’s limited habitat.
“This is a species that needs the natural dune process where dunes are moving, and one of the things humans have done is plant invasive plants to keep the dunes from moving,” Miller said. “There’s been a lot of work in removing invasive plants and restoring the dune process.”
Other efforts included limiting off-road vehicle and livestock traffic as well as giving the plant protected lands; these moves presented conservationists with a small victory, as the sunflower’s classification is changing from endangered to threatened, Miller said.
“Endangered is a species likely to go extinct throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Threatened is a species [that] essentially without human intervention is likely to be endangered. It’s not quite imperiled yet,” he explained.
Although the road to recovery is not over, it shows the beach layia’s success while protected, and encourages more innovative ways to help its survival, Miller added.
“Getting it from threatened to where it can come off the list entirely will take propagating plants and seeds and doing large-scale planting,” he said.
The plant grows in Humboldt Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, and Vandenberg Space Force Base, Miller said.
The last population surveys conducted in 2019 showed the layia occupied 2.8 acres with about 12,000 plants at Vandenberg—relatively small in comparison to nine north coast locations with more than 1 million plants, he said.
“The other thing about the Vandenberg population is that population—although small—appears to be on the increase from 2017 to 2019. They’ve [Vandenberg officials] done restoration, but they don’t have a dedicated fund for recovering this plant. It relies on the base’s annual budget and putting money [aside]to continue those management efforts,” Miller said.
Management efforts include removing invasive species like European beach grass and veldt grass—which were originally planted to stabilize the dunes, but were detrimental to the sunflower’s survival, Miller explained.
“It needs open areas between other robust, native plants,” Miller said. “What all of the [invasive species] do is lock the dunes in place and reduces the open sandy area the beach layia relies on.”
Although climate change continues to be a threat to habitat due to the potential for sea level rise, he said that the layia’s successful move from endangered to threatened is a good demonstration of the power of the Endangered Species Act.
“It’s important to highlight the successes and the fact that [the Endangered Species Act] does work,” Miller said. “It’s protected really cherished species from disappearing, and it’s constantly under attack. Elements in Congress are trying to defund it and get rid of the legal protections. The layia is a good example that if you remove the threats, you’ll see recovery.”
Highlight
• The Santa Maria Town Center Macy’s celebrated the grand opening of its first Macy’s Backstage—a store-within-a-store shopping experience with an assortment of “on-trend finds” that gives shoppers another way to find and express their personal style, according to press materials. On April 9, the store held a ribbon cutting ceremony—unveiling more than 11,000 square feet of dedicated retail space on the second floor. The celebration also featured a variety of giveaways. Macy’s has successfully expanded its off-price business to more than 300 storefronts. Learn more at macysbackstage.com.
Reach Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor at toconnor@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 14-21, 2022.
