More than 10 years after the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit to force the federal government to include Agave eggersiana on the endangered species list, the plant found only on St. Croix finally made the grade.
The U.S. Fish and Service recently announced that the rare plant would be listed as an endangered species effective Oct. 9. The agency also announced in its press release that Gonocalyx concolor made the endangered list and Varronia rupicola was on the threatened list. Those two plants grow in Puerto Rico.
At the same time, Fish and Wildlife designated critical habitat for the three species. About 51 acres of critical habitat has been designated for Agave eggersiana in St. Croix, 198 acres for Gonocalyx concolor in Puerto Rico, and 6,547 acres for Varronia rupicola in southern Puerto Rico and Vieques Island.
The local government owns a total of 45.8 percent of the Agave eggersiana critical habitat. Private land owners have the rest.
Although some of the areas within these plants’ critical habitat designation are located on private land, activities on these lands will not be affected unless such activities are authorized, funded or carried out by a federal agency. Designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership or establish a refuge, reserve, preserve or other conservation area.
If federal funds are involved in a project in the area, the government agency involved will need to consult with Fish and Wildlife to help landowners avoid, reduce or mitigate potential impacts to the plants or to ensure proposed actions do not adversely affect or modify its critical habitat.
The benefit of designating critical habitat for a listed plant or animal is that it helps focus the conservation efforts. Fish and Wildlife’s identification of critical habitat areas is based on the best scientific information available and considers all relevant information provided by the public, government agencies, the scientific community, industry and other interested parties during the public comment period.
Fish and Wildlife offers willing landowners a number of voluntary and non-regulatory conservation programs to help these imperiled species survive.
All three Caribbean plants face some or all of the following threats to their existence: hurricanes, habitat loss and degradation from development, fires, competition from nonnative plants, predation and disease caused by insects such as
weevils, and small and disconnected populations.
Agave eggersiana has deep yellow flowers and stands tall in arid coastal cliffs and coastal shrub land to face the ocean. This species is particularly vulnerable to collection.
Many organizations are already working with Fish and Wildlife to conserve these
plants, including St. George Village Botanical Garden, the St. Croix
Environmental Association, Sandy Point and Vieques National Wildlife
Refuges, the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources, the
National Park Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources
Conservation Service and private landowners.
The National Park Service planted more than 100 juvenile Agave eggersiana plants on its lands in St. Croix.
The ultimate goal of the Endangered Species Act is the recovery of these listed plants so that they no longer need protection under the act. The next step is to develop recovery plans that provide guidance for Fish and Wildlife and its conservation partners to address threats to the plants’ survival and recovery.
Landowners interested in helping Fish and Wildlife recover these three Caribbean plants or seeking more information about the implications of the listing and critical habitat designation should contact the Caribbean Ecological Services Field Office at P.O. Box 491, Boquerón, Puerto Rico 00622 or contact Marelisa Rivera at
787-851-7297 or via e-mail at marelisa_rivera@fws.gov.
The public may view materials concerning these final rules at http://www.regulations.gov, using the docket numbers FWS–R4–ES–2013–0103 (listing) and FWS-R4-ES-2013-0040 (critical habitat).
