BLM-New Mexico Plant Conservation Strategies Grant

The National Seed Strategy addresses issues restoring native plant communities on a landscape scale. Land managers must often replant large acreages quickly to avoid severe erosion or colonization by nonnative invasive plants. Adding to the challenges are the expense and difficulty of obtaining and delivering adequate quantities of appropriate seed to meet the need, which is often difficult to predict. This seed must be available for use at the right time and in the right place. The goals of the Strategy are 1) Identify seed needs, and ensure the reliable availability of genetically appropriate seed, 2) Identify research needs and conduct research to provide genetically appropriate seed and to improve technology for native seed production and ecosystem restoration, 3) Develop tools that enable managers to make timely, informed seeding decisions for ecological restoration, and 4) Develop strategies for internal and external communication. To achieve these goals, BLM needs a partnership in everything from seed collection to seed production to be successful in all four goals.

The National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators was developed through a collaborative effort across the Executive Branch, this Strategy outlines a comprehensive approach to tackling and reducing the impact of multiple stressors on pollinator health, including pests and pathogens, reduced habitat, lack of floral resources, and exposure to pesticides. Building on the current state of the science, and with a renewed emphasis on expanding our understanding of the complex interactions among the various factors impacting pollinator health, the Strategy lays out current and planned Federal actions to achieve the following overarching goals: 1) Reduce honey bee colony losses, 2) increase the eastern population of the monarch butterfly, and 3) Restore or enhance 7 million acres of land for pollinators over the next 5 years through Federal action and public/private partnerships. To accomplish these goals, the BLM must also inventory and monitor populations of pollinators to know the status of the species and where to direct restoration projects. The Strategy also discusses conducting research to understand, prevent, and recover from pollinator losses; expanding public education programs and outreach; increasing and improving pollinator habitat; and developing public-private partnerships across all these activities. A critical component of the Strategy is to advance the science underpinning the government⿿s land management and regulatory decisions. To this end, the National Pollinator Task Force has prepared the accompanying ⿿Pollinator Research Action Plan,⿝ which outlines gaps in current knowledge of pollinators and pollinator declines, and identifies priority research efforts needed to close these gaps. Finally, the National Seed Strategy overlaps with the Pollinator Strategy in several ways, but most importantly to advance the availability and use of pollinator-friendly seed mixes in land management, restoration, and rehabilitation actions nationwide.

The New Mexico Rare Plant Conservation Strategy will provide a decision-making framework for prioritizing conservation actions and a foundation for collaboration among multiple stakeholders; consistent restoration and management recommendations for rare plant species and their habitats; protection for imperiled plants where regulatory gaps exist; and an impetus for voluntary conservation measures and recovery funding. The strategy is needed because there are numerous rare plant species in NM (55 of which BLM manages as special status plant species), and there are no state plant protection statutes. In addition, the strategy is needed to provide long-term management of rare plant species that prevents future listings and promotes de-listing of species when possible.

The draft New Mexico Rare Plant Conservation Strategy outlines six objectives to further the conservation and restoration of rare plants, and the NM BLM also supports these objectives. The BLM has the responsibility to seek to conserve endangered and threatened species. In addition to federally-threatened species, the BLM Special Status Species Management Manual (MS 6840) requires that District and Field Managers monitor populations of Bureau special status species to determine whether management objectives are being met. However, BLM field offices in New Mexico need better information on the location and condition of special status plant populations on public lands in order to comply with these mandates; therefore One objective of the strategy is to inventory, monitor, and research rare plant species. This information is needed in order to effectively protect and manage these populations.

Research on rare plant species in New Mexico is sparse. Aside from basic information on the location and condition of rare plant populations on public lands, having knowledge of the life history, best management practices, cultivation, and taxonomy of the species would greatly assist the BLM and other land management agencies provide more effective conservation of these species. Predictive models of where rare plant species are likely to occur would also help BLM and other agencies provide better avoidance and mitigation of impacts to rare plants when authorizing development. This might include creating a toolset for model building and working with science-based partners such as USGS.
Another objective outlined in the draft New Mexico Rare Plant Conservation Strategy is to protect, manage, and restore priority species and habitats. The BLM can support this objective by assisting in the development of resources for habitat restoration and management. This would include supporting the development of genetically appropriate native plant materials for habitat restoration for both common and rare plant species, as well as supporting research investigating effective restoration and plant establishment methods.
The final objective of the draft New Mexico Rare Plant Conservation Strategy is recovery of rare plant species. Recovery actions include drafting an interagency recovery plan for each species, collecting seeds and plant materials, propagating materials for outplanting, carrying out reintroduction or augmentation actions, and monitoring the success of these actions. Supporting the development of resources that enhance our capacity to successfully reintroduce or augment rare plant populations will help the BLM fulfill its responsibility to suppor the conservation and recovery of special status plant species.