Availability of Draft Recovery Plan for Six plants from the Mountains Surrounding the Los Angeles Basin for Review and Comment

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

Availability of Draft Recovery Plan for Six plants from the

Mountains Surrounding the Los Angeles Basin for Review and Comment

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of document availability.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces the availability

for public review of a draft Recovery Plan for Six Plants from the

Mountains Surrounding the Los Angeles Basin. These plants occur in the

mountains surrounding the Los Angeles Basin in Ventura, Los Angeles,

and Orange counties, California.

DATES: Comments received on the draft recovery plan by April 6, 1999,

will be considered by the Service.

ADDRESSES: Requests for copies of the draft recovery plan and written

comments and materials regarding this plan should be addressed to the

Field Supervisor at the Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service, 2493 Portola Road, Suite B, Ventura, California 9393

(phone: 805/644-1766).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Thomas, Botanist, at the Ventura

address.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

Restoring endangered or threatened animals and plants to the point

where they are again secure, self-sustaining members of their

ecosystems is a primary goal of the Service's endangered species

program. To help guide the recovery effort, the Service is working to

prepare recovery plans for most of the listed species native to the

United States. Recovery plans describe actions considered necessary for

the conservation of the species, establish criteria for the recovery

levels for downlisting or delisting them, and estimate time and cost

for implementing the recovery measures needed.

The Endangered Species Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.)

(Act), requires the development of recovery plans for listed species

unless such a plan would not promote the conservation of a particular

species. Section 4(f) of the Act as amended in 1988 requires that

public notice and an opportunity for public review and comment be

provided during recovery plan development. The Service will consider

all information presented during the public comment period prior to

approval of each new or revised Recovery Plan. Substantive technical

comments will result in changes to the plans. Substantive comments

regarding recovery plan implementation may not necessarily result in

changes to the recovery plans, but will be forwarded to appropriate

Federal or other entities so that they can take these comments into

account during the course of implementing recovery actions.

Individualized responses to comments will not be provided.

The six plants from the mountains surrounding the Los Angeles Basin

addressed in this recovery plan were added to the list of endangered

and threatened plants on January 29, 1997 (62 FR 4172). Two of the

plant species, Braunton's milkvetch (Astragalus brauntonii) and Lyon's

pentachaeta (Pentachaeta lyonii), were listed as endangered. The

remaining four species were listed as threatened. They are Conejo

dudleya (Dudleya abramsii ssp. parva), marcescent dudleya (Dudleya

cymosa ssp. marcescens (marcescent dudleya), Santa Monica Mountains

dudleya (Dudleya cymosa ssp. ovatifolia), and Verity's dudleya (Dudleya

verityi). These plants occur in grassland, chaparral, or coastal sage

scrub vegetation in the mountains surrounding the Los Angeles Basin,

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California. The six plants are threatened by one or more of the

following--urban development, recreational activities, alteration of

fire cycles and fire suppression activities, excessive collecting,

habitat fragmentation and degradation, and competition from invasive

weeds. Several of the plants are also threatened with stochastic

extinction by virtue of their small numbers and small population sizes.

The goal of this plan is to stabilize and protect existing

populations to allow for the downlisting of Astragalus brauntonii and

Pentachaeta lyonii and their eventual delisting, and the delisting of

all four of the Dudleya species. These plants all have very restricted

distributions in specialized habitats, so the main conservation actions

will be to protect existing populations of these plants, ensuring that

the sites are managed for their benefit. The voluntary cooperation of

private landowners will be sought.

Public comments solicited

The Service solicits written comments on the recovery plan

described. All comments received by the date specified above will be

considered prior to approval of this plan.

Authority

The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the Endangered

Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f).

Dated: December 8, 1998.

Michael J. Spear,

Manager, California/Nevada Operations Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service, Sacramento, California.

[FR Doc. 99-252 Filed 1-5-99; 8:45 am]

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