A Conservation Management Strategy for Nine Low Elevation Rare Plants in Clark County, Nevada [Final Draft]

The Nature Conservancy

Low elevation landscapes in the Mojave Desert harbor numerous rare plant species covered under the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP). Lower elevations in the County, whether public or private land, also receive enormous pressure from direct and indirect effects of human growth including loss, degradation, and fragmentation of habitat for rare plant species. Nine low elevation rare plants and their habitats were in need of a conservation management strategy (CMS) to meet goals of the MSHCP and secure greater likelihood of their long term persistence. This low elevation rare plant CMS: • addresses sticky ringstem, Las Vegas bearpoppy, white bearpoppy, threecorner milkvetch, alkali mariposa lily, Pahrump Valley wild buckwheat, sticky wild buckwheat, white-margined beardtongue, and Parish phacelia (Anulocaulis leiosolenus var. leiosolenus, Arctomecon californica, A. merriamii, Astragalus geyeri var. triquetrus, Calochortus striatus, Eriogonum bifurcatum, E. viscidulum, Penstemon albomarginatus, and Phacelia parishii); • reviews the literature and existing information on the biology and ecology of the nine rare plants and their habitats within the context of their global distributions; • summarizes population viabilities and threats to the plants and their habitats, and links both to specific altered ecological attributes; • reviews current management status across land ownerships; • identifies conservation strategies in Clark County and adjacent areas with explicit outcomes and actions needed to improve long term plant viability and reduce critical threats; • identifies priorities to accomplish the conservation strategy and MSHCP goals; and • outlines a monitoring framework and an implementation plan using adaptive management.

A Conservation Management Strategy for Nine Low Elevation Rare Plants in Clark County, Nevada [Final Draft]

Collections