1603 Capitol Ave . , #325
Cheyenne, WY 82001
22 October, 1981
634-9629

WYOMING NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY NEWSLETTER, Vol 1 #3

Newspaper Article-New Members : The article printed in the last issue of the
Newsletter was sent to about 15 newspapers throughout the state. As a result, we
gained 12 new members. They are? Catherine Kief fer , John Person, William Bren-
neman, Bob Giurcevich, Michele Marlowe, Gale Fonken, Barry and Joanne Johnston,

Frances Holbrook, Karin Cyrus-Strid, William Barlow, and The Nature Conservancy. ■£(>

Treasuer's Report : Our present balance is $220.20. Since our last report we have
taken in $67.00 in membership fees and spent $10.00 on. stamps. -f

New Member Interests : Our new members have varied interests in native Wyoming
flora. For example, Catherine Kieffer is an ardent herb grower and William
Brenneman has a special interest in lichens. We also have several botany students
from the University of Wyoming as new members. We welcome all of you and hope to
see you at our next annual meeting, ^

Rocky fjountain Regional Rare Plant Conference : The third Rocky Mountain Regional Rare
Plant Conference, entitled "Energy Development and Bare Plants: Planning for the Future 1 '
will be held November 5th and 6th at the Denver Botanical Gardens, 909 York Street, Denver.
The Conference, which promises to be both informative and action oriented, is sponsored
by the Botanical Gardens in conjunction with the Native Plant Societies of the region.

It will provide information on federal regulations affecting rare plants, sources
of rare plant data, and methods to reduce or eliminate potential conflicts surrounding
the development of natural resources and the retention of rare plants or unique ecosystems.
In addition, representatives from each of the s taxes will give an update on activities
in their state.

The different roles of professionals collecting rare plant data in industry, federal
government, state government, and consulting firms will be explored. Areas of common in-
terest and areas where cooperative agreements may prove- to be mutually beneficial will be
examined. In addition, conference participants will identify existing or potential pro-
blems that may affect the effectiveness of the rare plant effort. Some solutions may be
developed at the conference while others may require additional study. Data compatibility,
storage, and retrieval needs will also be discussed.

Pre-registration is requested to the Colorado Native Plant Society, Rare Plant
Conference, P.O. Box 200, Fort Collins, CO 80522. The registration fee is $ 1 0 for gen-
eral admission and $5 for Denver Botanical Garden r>r Native Plant Society Members and
Students.

For a list of motels, prices, and phone numbers call Robert Lichvar at 634-9629.

Annual Plant Meeting : In Vol. I if 2 of our newsletter we gave a list of five locations to
vote for our next annual meeting, they were; North Fork of the Shoshone River, Black Hills
Laramie Peak, South Pass, and Flaming Gorge. From the seven responses received the Black
Hills won by getting 4 votes.

The 1st annual meet,ing was held on June 26, 27 1981, which was the last weekend of
the month. If you would like to suggest another time or weekend, send your suggestions

s oon -

News that's making^news : The status of the Endangered .Species Act will be recon-
sidered this coming March by Congress, Until! the Act is reauthorized, the
volume of species listed will be essentially zero. The game plan is reauthor-
ization= low profile.

Until the Act gets reauthorized in March the Fish and Wildlife Services is
attempting some alternative methods to protect candidate species. The most
recent is a Memorandum of Understanding (M0U). An agreement is made between
the landownerCs) of the critical habitat of a particular species and the FWS
concentrating on a viable management plan for the species. Examples could
be no spraying for noxious "weeds" in the critical habitat, etc. However, this
approach has some major pitfalls. All Acts or previous laws can override a
M0U, For example, the hard rock mining act of 1872 would have precedence over a
MOU. In short, the M0U has no legal, status . An analog to this could be; this is
how the Indians must have felt after a treaty signing with their new piece of
white paper.

I

R. Dorn- 1981 Field Work

Primary fieldwork involved surveying with Bob Lichvar populations of Astragalus
proimanthus (Precocious Milkvelch) and Lesquerella macrocarpa (Large-fruited Bladderpod)
which were candidates for threatened status. Several new populations of each were found
resulting in a recommendation to remove both from consideration as threatened. Several
rarities were picked up in the Black Hills including Polygala verticillata (previously
known from Yellowstone Park), Viburnum opulus or High-bush Cranberty (known from an early
collection by Aven Kelson in the same county), and Lycopus unif lorus , a new state record.
Aralia nudicaulis , previously known from the Black Hills, was found in LaBonte Canyon in
northern Albany County. p^_ Jj

Antennaria endanger!! : Recently while Robert Lichvar was returning from the Honeycomb
Buttes he drove through Antennaria arcuata Cronq. (Headow Pussytoes) country. In Wyoming
this species is known from the South Pass area. It is also known from one county in each
of the states of Nevada and Idaho. This following story is an example of how rapidly a
situation can change.

The Meadow Pussytoes was one of the original proposed candidate species for the En-
dangered Species Act. From 1976 until 1979 only five small populations were known. Then
in 1980 Russ Holmes (BLM) and R. Lichvar located another seven populations. No threats
existed at the time so it was proposed that it be withdrawn from federal concern.

Then late in August of 1981 while R. Lichvar traveled through the area he noticed ac-
tive gold mining operations. Some activity was within a mile or so of the hab itat . The
main concern is that the mining is occurring in the exact same type of habitat required by

the Antennaria. _ .

Requests were made to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the
BLM on the status of the land. The areas that are being mined are under filed permits at
DEQ, However, many of the known locations of these species have claims already filed upon
them. The now active mining and existing claims have prompted us to repropose Antennaria
arcuata as threatened. S^'W l

Under the regulations covering surface management of public lands under U.S. Mining
ws , prospectors or miners causing disturbance of less than five acres per year are re-
ired to file a notice of intent which does not require approval or bonding. Disturbance
of more than five acres per year requires the filing and Federal approval of a plan of
operations. The goal of these regulations is to protect Federal lands from unnecessary and
undue degradation. This means surface disturbance g reater than what would normally ^result
when mining is done by a prudent operator in usual, customary and prof ic lent operations .

So, in laymen's terms, this means regardless of the size of the mining activity (less than
5, greater than 5 acres), if the operator is conducting a normal mining operation, the
Federal government can do nothing to protect a nan-listed species unless the operator vol-
untarily protects it.

At first the BLM and FWS prepared a Memorandum of Understanding designed to protect
Antennaria. However, BLM determined that under the Surface mining regulations all they
could do~was request the operator to avoid crucial habitat. If the operator decided to
deny this request, there would be no legal recourse for the BLM. So, given the immediate
nature of the threat, the BLM has written a letter to FWS explaining the constraints
of an MOU and requesting an emergency listing for the species. The threat is real because
there are current mining claims filed on identified plant sitings and habitats. Verbally,
the FWS has stated their intent to pursue emergency listing for this plant. Hopefully, this
procedure can be completed by Spring ’82 before mining activity is reinitiated.

Perhaps we should spend some Native Plant Society money to file claims on endangered
species habitats. It only costs $10 to file and the maximum acreage one group can file
on is 160 acres. However, you must spend $100 per year to maintain the claim's viability.
Give it some thought!

Laws

qu

Wyoming's Plant Bill* Several members of the Society would like to introduce a bill dur-
ing the Wyoming legislature in 1983 to create an official state list of rare plant species
Such a bill would assist state and federal agencies as well as private entities (us!) in
recognizing and protecting uniqueness and rarity of these species. Bob Lichvar has re-
quested copies of other states' statuates (e-g. California, Nebraska, Colorado} to use
as format examples for our bill. If you have any thoughts or ideas or would like to vol-
unteer some assistance in this effort, please contact Bob Lichvar, Phyllis Roseberry, and
Ann Aldrich at the society address.

Candidate Mascot Plant : It has been suggested by R. Dorn that our society should have a
mascot plant (U.S.M.C. bulldog, etc-)- this plant should represent the uniqueness of the
flora of Wyoming. To adequately represent the state we thought an. endemic species would-be
a priority. Any member may propose a mascot plant, to do so please follow the format used
below. Otherwise, vote on one of the following four species as soon as possible so we can
get letter heads made.

Lesquere 1 la macrocarpa Aven Nelson is a Wyoming Endemic first collected by A. Nelson
near Bush Ranch in 1900. This species is restricted to clay-bentonite beds in the north-
west part of the Red Desert. Due to the isolated location this spfecles went unobserved
until 1977. This plant recently dubbed the ’’Red Desert Cabbage” represents the type of
situations that face several members of the state flora. The habitat of this species is
rich with oil and gas leases, bisected by roads, and not well understood scientifically.
This species may hold the key to the future for dry land agriculture in Wyoming. <£vVL

Penstemon pays oniortn Keck is a state endemic that is known from Uinta, Sweetwater,
Lincoln, and Fremont counties. The narrow-elongate leaves and it's restriction to calcar-
eous clay hills makes it readily distinguishable from other Penstemons . Paysons Bearded
Tongue is named in honor of Edwin Payson a Wyoming botanist, Fayson within several years
made numerous collections in uncollected areas in the state- This species represents sev-
eral unique situations. - 1) The species is representative of habitats usually inhabitated
by Wyoming endemics, i.e. wind swept calcareous knolls. 2) Just as Payson -found numerous
undescribed species, in Wyoming today new species are still being found.: Thus, Payson’ s
Bearded Tongue represents the vastness that remains to be discovered by the adventurous.

Astragalus s implic if olius (Nuttall) Gray- Bun Milkvetch, This attractive cushion
plant was 1 collected by Thomas Nuttall on his journey across Wyoming in 1834 on "summits
of high hills in the Rocky Mountain range toward the sources of the Platte.” It is res-
tricted to Natrona, Carbon, and Fromont counties growing on windswept knolls and slopes.

It has bright pink-purple flowers which rarely' are pure- -white* These barely exceed the
leaves which rarely reach more than 2 inches above the ground-. This is a representative
plant of Wyoming's high, cold, windswept desert. i>

Aquilegia laramiensis A. Nelson- Laramie Columbine. This rare columbine looks like-
a miniature Colorado Columbine, Colorado’s state flower. It was first collected by Aven.
Nelson near Laramie Peak in 1895. It Is restricted to the Laramie- Range in Albany and
Converse counties growing in crevices of granite boulders and. cliffs.. It could: possibly r
be the same as a species which grows in northern Colorado.

L

Botanical Novalities: At the end of the botanical novalties section in the last issue we
left J. Townsend a^d T- Nuttall (Mr. N.) in Missouri just beginning, their journey across
the Rocky Mountains in 1834. Each of these naturalists kept a journal of their crossing
half the continent. Between the two journals the one written by J. Townsend is a little
more lively (Townsend, J. 1976; Graustein, J. 1967).

Townsend comments frequently about Mr. N. who had a sober personality and how serious
he took his botanical interests. On one such occasion in western Missouri, Townsend
arose earlier in the morning to go deer hunting. His comment: in his journal as he left i
was, "I rose this morning at daybreak and left Mr. N ^ dreaming of weeds " These two nat-

uralists continued across the Rockies following the route which later became the Oregon :
Trail. Only several pages in both journals are devoted to Wyoming .-

Among some of the Interesting plants collected by Nuttall, many of them are regional
endemics. Some of these species are: Bolophyta alpina Nutt-,., Qxytropis nana Nutt., and
Townsendia spathulata Nutt. The wanderlust of Nuttall may have made him forfeit his
position at Harvard, University (being replaced by Asa Gray),, but he will always be remem-
bered as a keen field botanist who's deep understandings reflected field observations,

Graustein, J. E. 1967. Thomas Nuttall, Naturalist. Harvard Unlv. Press, Cambridge, MA.

Townsend, J.K. 1978. Narrative of a Journey across : the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia
River, Univ. Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NB,

John McLeod was probably the only fur trapper who collected plants for botanical
studies. He learned collecting techniques from Dr, William Tolmie,. a physician at Ft.
Vancouver. In 1837 McLeod attended the annual fur trappers rendezvous on the.Green River
in Sublette County. He collected a number of plants along the Green and its tributaries.
Some of the new species were described by Hooker and.Arnott: in The Botany of Captain
Beeckey’s Voyage in 1839. Tolmie sent the plants to- Hooker in England and received credit
for the collections as evidenced by the plant Orthocarpus tolmiei Hooker and Arnott. K u
Next time we will find out who lost their large collection of .plants in^an attempt to
raft a narrow canyon on the Platte in the present Natrona County in, the 1840’s.

3

Things for you to do :

1) Vote on mascot plant or send in your proposal for another species

2) Suggestions about the scheduling time for our next annual meeting

3) Comments about mining claims for Antennaria arcuata .

Things to Come :

1) A discussion on Wyoming’s proposed candidate species.

2) Rare or interesting species in the Wyoming flora.

3) Distribution patterns. in the state flora,.

4) Technical jargon to understand the Endangered Species Act.

Bob Lichvar , Phyllis Roseberry, Bob Dorn, Ann Aldrich

Wyoming Native Plant Society
1603 Capital Ave. #325 ; t
Cheyenne, WY 82001