The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wants to protect two plants that are only found in the Guadalupe-Nipomo dunes area and get them both off the federally endangered species list.
The Nipomo Mesa lupine is a small annual plant that produces vibrant purple flowers, and it’s currently only found in the Nipomo Mesa within an area that’s about 2 square miles. The species’ small geographic range contributes to likely low genetic diversity, according to a draft recovery plan for the Nipomo lupine, released by FWS on June 17. It also lacks an insect pollinator and is dependent on adequate rainfall, factors contributing to its endangered status.
The recovery plan lays out a strategy to preserve the plant by mitigating the threats to its existence. One of the most prominent threats is displacement and habitat loss due to invasive species, particularly veldt grass.
“Nipomo Mesa lupine requires sandy openings, or gaps within coastal dune scrub habitat and perennial veldt grass comes in, fills those gaps, outcompetes the lupine, changes the soil composition, and disrupts the ecosystem processes required to create and maintain those sandy gaps,” Kristie Scarazzo, a botanist with FWS, told the Sun in an email. “Residential development, activities associated with oil and gas, seed predation, stochastic loss and extinction, and climate change are also threats to the species.”
To address these threats, Scarazzo said, seed banks, propagating, and planting are crucial.
“We are bulking the seed, propagating it, and outplanting Nipomo Mesa lupine onto two publicly-owned sites in San Luis Obispo County that are being actively managed for the species’ recovery and wildlife conservation,” Scarazzo said. “And we are conducting scientific studies on these populations in a greenhouse to better understand Nipomo Mesa lupine’s basic biology, life history, and ecology.”
She added that FWS is working with the UCSB Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration and the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County to implement these conservation tactics.
The public can comment on the Nipomo Mesa lupine draft recovery plan until July 19.
Also under local conservation efforts is the La Graciosa thistle. Part of the sunflower family, this plant has “spiny leaves and flower heads,” featuring “long, white corollas with pink to purple tubes and purple anthers,” as FWS describes it. The thistle’s current geographic range is restricted to the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Complex, according to its draft recovery plan released June 11. The public can comment on this plan until July 12.
Scarazzo said that once the public comment period closes for these plants’ draft recovery plans, the FWS will make any necessary changes or updates and then finalize the plan.
“Several of the recovery actions outlined in the draft plan are already underway,” she said. “In order for the actions to be considered successful, Nipomo Mesa lupine populations must display stable or increasing demographic trends for 10 consecutive years.”
This article appears in Jul 8-15, 2021.