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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 43 / Monday, March 8, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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a persistent seed bank in the soil.
Although some fruit survives in the soil for 1 year, the seeds are not viable Kaye et al. 2001, p. 1376. Further information on the basic biology and ecology of Bradshaws lomatium is summarized in the SSA report Service 2018, entire.
Recovery and Recovery Plan Implementation Section 4f of the Act directs us to develop and implement recovery plans for the conservation and survival of endangered and threatened species unless we determine that such a plan will not promote the conservation of the species. Recovery plans must, to the maximum extent practicable, include objective, measurable criteria which, when met, would result in a determination, in accordance with the provisions of section 4 of the Act, that the species be removed from the List.
Recovery plans provide a roadmap for us and our partners on methods of enhancing conservation and minimizing threats to listed species, as well as measurable criteria against which to evaluate progress towards recovery and assess the species likely future condition. However, they are not regulatory documents and do not substitute for the determinations and promulgation of regulations required under section 4a1 of the Act. A
decision to revise the status of a species, or to delist a species, is ultimately based on an analysis of the best scientific and commercial data available to determine whether a species is no longer an endangered species or a threatened species, regardless of whether that information differs from the recovery plan.
There are many paths to accomplishing recovery of a species, and recovery may be achieved without all of the criteria in a recovery plan being fully met. For example, one or more criteria may be exceeded while other criteria may not yet be accomplished. In that instance, we may determine that the threats are minimized sufficiently and that the species is robust enough that it no longer meets the definition of an endangered species or a threatened species. In other cases, we may discover new recovery opportunities after having finalized the recovery plan. Parties seeking to conserve the species may use these opportunities instead of methods identified in the recovery plan.
Likewise, we may learn new information about the species after we finalize the recovery plan. The new information may change the extent to which existing criteria are appropriate
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for identifying recovery of the species.
The recovery of a species is a dynamic process requiring adaptive management that may, or may not, follow all of the guidance provided in a recovery plan.
In 2010, we finalized the revised recovery plan for Bradshaws lomatium Service 2010. The recovery plan states that Bradshaws lomatium could be considered for downlisting to threatened status when there are 12
populations and 60,000 plants distributed in such a way as to reflect the species historical geographic distribution, when the number of individuals in the populations have been stable or increasing over a period of 10 years, when sites are managed to meet established habitat quality guidelines, when a substantial portion of the species habitat is protected for conservation, and when populations are managed to ensure maintenance of habitat and to control threats.
The recovery plan states that, in addition to the criteria described above, Bradshaws lomatium could be considered for delisting when there are 20 populations and 100,000 plants properly distributed, genetic material is stored in a facility approved by the Center for Plant Conservation, and postdelisting monitoring plans and monitoring agreements are in place.
Given our current understanding of this species, the criteria addressing abundance, distribution, and site management and protection are the most important in assessing recovery.
Accordingly, these criteria are the basis of our analysis of resiliency, redundancy, and representation, and the focus of the discussion that follows. The remaining two criteria have also been met; genetic material is preserved at the Institute of Applied Ecology seed bank, and post-delisting monitoring plans and agreements are in place see PostDelisting Monitoring.
To reflect the historical distribution of Bradshaws lomatium, the species range was divided into eight recovery zones Southwest Washington, Portland, Salem West, Salem East, Corvallis West, Corvallis East, Eugene West, and Eugene East, and targets for number of populations and number of plants for each zone were established based on historical presence, to the extent known Service 2010, pp. IV1IV6, IV31
IV34.
Two of the recovery zones Portland and Salem West are within the range of Bradshaws lomatium, but do not have population targets for the species based on a lack of historical occurrence data.
These recovery zones were nonetheless retained because if any populations of Bradshaws lomatium were to be
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discovered or introduced within these zones, they could be considered as contributing to the recovery criteria for the species under the category Additional Populations.
The expression of recovery criteria in terms of population abundance, numbers of populations, and distribution across recovery zones reflects a foundational principle of conservation biology: That there is a positive relationship between the relative viability of a species over time and the resiliency, redundancy, and representation of its constituent populations Shaffer and Stein 2000, pp.
307310; Wolf et al. 2015, entire. To look at it another way, extinction risk is generally reduced as a function of increased population abundance resiliency, numbers of populations redundancy, and distribution or geographic or genetic diversity representation. The recovery criteria laid out in the recovery plan for Bradshaws lomatium were, therefore, informative for our review of the status of the species, as that analysis leans upon these measures of viability to assess the current and future status of the species Service 2018, pp. 12.
The downlisting criteria for number and distribution of populations and numbers of plants were intended to help identify the point at which imminent threats to Bradshaws lomatium had been ameliorated so that the populations were no longer in immediate risk of extirpation; the delisting criteria for number and distribution of populations and numbers of plants were intended to identify the point at which the species was unlikely to become in danger of extinction. In our analysis, only populations with moderate to high overall condition and with more than 200 plants were considered to have met the recovery criteria, as populations with lower overall condition or abundance were considered too high risk to be counted toward recovery. An estimated 11,276,253 plants in 17 populations meet this standard Service 2018, p. 39, updated based on Wilderman 2018, entire, an increase from approximately 25,000 to 30,000 individuals in 11
populations at listing in 1988. An additional 1,361 plants, distributed among 7 populations, comprise the grand total number of known Bradshaws lomatium plants. In total, 24
populations occur on 71 distinct sites that are owned by a mix of Federal, State, and local governments;
nongovernmental organizations NGOs;
and private citizens. Multiple sites are considered to be part of the same population when those sites are within
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