Emerald Chapter members have been active in listing and monitoring rare and endangered (R & E) plants in Lane County for many years. NPSO believes that listing and monitoring activities are central to rare plant and rare plant habitat preservation.

Lane County Rare Plant Monitoring

Monitoring of rare plants in Lane County is completed upon request. Emerald Chapter maintains a list of volunteers, many of whom are retired professional botanists, who are willing to monitor rare plants on city, state, and federal lands. Land managers and volunteers just need to contact us at Em_President@npsOregon.org and we will match volunteers to projects. In the past, we have helped conduct long-term monitoring of Lomatium bradshawii at Buford Park, presence/absence monitoring of Sisrynchium hitchcockii  and Gentiana newberryi, and transect monitoring of Abronia umbellata var. breviflora.

Lane County Rare Plant Tracking

Goals

The primary goal of the monitoring project is to maintain current listing status and a database of rare and endangered plant species known to occur in Lane County.

A secondary goal is to “watch” for species known to exist close to Lane County that are expected to occur in the County but for which there are presently no observations or recorded collections.

During periodic updates, taxa which are found to meet the listing criteria will remain on or be added to the lists, and some which are currently listed may be removed if populations become more secure or if new information reveals more frequent occurrence than originally recorded.

Nomenclature and Oregon occurrence information is kept current to articulate with OregonFlora and Oregon Biodiversity Information Center (ORBIC) data.

Periodically, the Emerald Chapter R & E Chair will schedule a meeting to review the lists. Participants are current members of the Emerald Chapter, NPSO, or other plant enthusiasts who have knowledge of Lane County native flora. The R & E Chair will send notification at least 60 days prior to the meeting and invite participants to bring proposals for listing to the meeting. Proposals should include rationale for listing, locations of occurrence in Lane County, range outside Lane County, current Oregon list status, and perceived threats or endangerments to survival.

Within 14 days, a draft of list updates will be sent to participants. Following a 30-day comment period, the R & E Chair will compile a final list for Board of Directors approval and posting to Emerald Chapter’s website.

A link to the latest set of collated R & E lists (in PDF format) for Lane County is provided below with a “key” document appended at the end that explains the purpose of each list and the abbreviations used. Also provided below is a link to a downloadable Excel spreadsheet file that has the same list of species but in a form that allows sorting by common name, scientific name, synonyms, list type (e.g. federal, state, ORBIC), ecoregion, and more.