ST. GEORGE — As development encroaches on a quiet plot of land near the White Dome Nature Preserve, a coordinated effort is underway to preserve the seeds of an endangered plant.
Nearly 20 people gathered in the preserve’s parking lot on June 6, expecting temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. After a brief introduction and a warning about unexploded ordnances — the area was previously used by the Army National Guard — a line of vehicles traveled down East River Road to a rugged dirt road situated near Interstate 15.
“If it looks like a grenade, it probably is a grenade. Don’t touch it,” said Jennifer Lewinsohn, a species assessment team project manager with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The road led to land owned by the Utah Trust Lands Administration, which is being leased to a private party and slated for development. The area is also home to a robust population of Holmgren milkvetch.
The plant, Astragalus holmgreniorum, is a federally endangered species in the pea family unique to Washington County and Mohave County, Arizona, where the Mojave Desert, Great Basin Desert and Colorado Plateau converge, said Kody Rominger, a research fellow and program manager at Southern Utah University.
“That’s why there’s so many weird and rare species that grow in this area — it’s a very narrow band of ecosystem,” he said.
The perennial plant grows primarily on the Virgin Limestone member of the Moenkopi Formation or the Petrified Forest member of the Chinle Formation.
The plant is tied to the timing and amount of precipitation its environment receives each year. Rominger said if conditions are met, seedlings and second-year adults will emerge, with the latter flowering and producing seeds.
According to the species’ 2021 Fish and Wildlife status review, the population was estimated at 7,100 plants range-wide, down from 10,030 to 11,030 in 2001, when the species was listed. This is due to “declining population trends on BLM lands within four populations” and plant loss caused by development.
Of the 6,289 acres designated as critical habitat for the species in Utah and Arizona, 497 were lost to development. Fish and Wildlife also estimated a future loss of 1,000-1,500 individuals in two populations caused by development unless additional conservation efforts are undertaken.
Holmgren milkvetch is categorized as a species facing a “high degree of threat, imminent conflicts with land development, and a relatively low potential for recovery,” Fish and Wildlife states.
While animals listed under the Endangered Species Act receive protection regardless of where they live, plants are granted protection only on federal land or land with a federal nexus. For instance, land where the owner was issued a federal permit or received federal funding would have a nexus, Lewinsohn said.
“Plants aren’t protected on state lands like this without that kind of federal nexus,” she said, adding that while Fish and Wildlife can’t require state or private property owners to allow conservation efforts, they will ask permission to undertake projects.
Primary threats to the species include development, recreation, grazing and nonnative plants. Lewinsohn said invasive grasses, like cheatgrass and red brome, compete against the milkvetch, causing it to produce fewer seeds. This can cause population declines — even on protected land.
So, Fish and Wildlife works with The Nature Conservancy, BLM and other partners to plant collected seeds on federal land and in preserves to “boost the numbers and resilience.”
The June 6 seed collection project was one way Fish and Wildlife and its partners sought to preserve the plant. They were working with the Utah government and the land developers to protect a portion of the property for habitat, but an agreement hasn’t been finalized, Lewinsohn said.
Rominger said, “It would be OK if we stopped building our houses on top of the species, frankly. So the fact that this is the best population of Holmgrens, and it’s going to be gone, basically. … We’re going to do what we can to save the species.”
Collecting seeds from endangered plants
Rominger told attendees the plants they’d see in the field were “basically dead,” as they’d already flowered and begun dying back to their roots. But some still had green leaves.
Rominger spearheaded the project, which he’s been participating in since 2015. He started studying the plant as an undergraduate at Utah Valley University, conducting research with various scientists, including now-retired U.S. Forest Service research ecologist Susan Meyer, who had attended all the previous seed collection trips.
“It’s just so small and helpless,” he said of the plant. “It just kind of took my heart, and I just — I really like the species.”
Volunteers were given a paper bag to collect seeds and a pen or marker to tally how many plants they collected from.
As temperatures rose, the group headed back to their vehicles to call it a day. Almost everyone had collected seeds from at least one plant, most from five specimens, but one collected from 20 and another from 30, Hinners announced.
The seeds will be counted and subjected to a viability test to determine how many are alive. Hinners said many of the seeds would be transported to and stored at the Red Butte Garden.
Others will be sent to the federal seed banking facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, and some could be planted by Fish and Wildlife or other agencies in areas where their habitat is protected, she added.
Participants in the project included representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Red Butte Garden, Southern Utah University and Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, as well as staff and volunteers from Conserve Southwest Utah.
Other work to benefit the plant includes a planting project west of its traditional habitat. This population has grown on “good years” and gone through at least one reproductive cycle, flowering, producing seeds and dying back, Rominger said.
“We have uses for the seeds in helping the species persist,” he added.
Photo Gallery
Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Volunteers and staff from multiple agencies collected endangered Holmgren milkvetch seeds in St. George, Utah, June 6, 2024 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News
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