Plant Conservation Program 

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BLM Protects Wyoming's Native Plants

Plant Species Special Status Plants Issues & Concerns Wildlife Habitat Weeds & Pests Fire Effects Reclamation Inventory & Monitoring Seed Collection/Pricing Science Partnerships/Coop. Efforts MT-WY Plant Newsletters Wyoming Plant List

The liveability and productivity of Wyoming ecosystems depends on responsible stewardship of Native Plants: plants that are specifically adapted to the challenges of surviving in harsh environmental conditions such as extreme temperatures, drought, wind, high elevation, poor soils, and a short growing season. Healthy and locally adapted Native Plant communities are absolutely essential to provide food for humans and animals, wildlife habitat, stabilize soil against erosion, facilitate ground water recharge and hydrologic cycling, moderate extreme climatic conditions, and contribute to carbon storage.

BLM Wyoming is building a Plant Conservation Program to ensure that the benefits of healthy Native Plant communities on Public Lands continue, and that they are protected and maintained (and restored as needed) throughout the state, including where resource use and development disturb communities. BLM has always sought to manage for healthy plant communities on Public Lands, and we are ramping up those efforts to include increased production and availability of native plant varieties of seeds for use in reclamation and restoration efforts. Please contact your local BLM office to ask how you can contribute to this important new program.

According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service Plants Database, approximately 3,900 plant species occur within Wyoming's six ecoregions, including:

• 500 Species of Special Concern (WYNDD)
• 100 species in the Rare Plant Guide
• 45 endemic species
• 36 Sensitive Species (BLM designation)
• 3 species threatened (federal)
• 1 species endangered (federal)

In the Spotlight

• The BLM State Office welcomes our 2009 Plant Technicians Greg Pappas, Emiliano Lopez, Morgan Allen, Victor Biasotti and Melissa Schroeder, who support the Native Plants Materials Development Program with an emphasis on Seeds of Success collecting. They will be working out of the State Office in Cheyenne -and occasionally statewide - except for Victor, who is based in Rock Springs in support of the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative Program.

• Three BLM Wyoming Field Offices also welcome Chicago Botanic Garden Conservation Land Management Interns working in support of the Seeds of Success Program: Betsy Verhoeven (Worland), Stephanie Paavloa & Elizabeth O'Leary (Rawlins), and Lorenzo Ferrari (Cheyenne).

• Calling all native seeds! The BLM Wyoming Native Plants Materials Development Program is collecting native seeds anywhere in the state. We are asking for location information for native populations that are producing over 100,000 seeds, particularly of species that would be useful in reclamation efforts, are in danger of being disturbed by development (e.g. oil wells, wind turbines, roads), and appear to thrive in challenging conditions (i.e. in harsh or unusual soils, in competition with weedy species, under regular grazing pressures, and in drought conditions). Please send all information to: BLM Wyoming Plant Conservation Program Lead, 307-775-6035 or Adrienne_Pilmanis@blm.gov.

• Cheyenne Botanic Garden

• National Fish, Wildlife & Plant Conservation web page

Threatened & Endangered Plant Brochures
(hard copies of the brochures are available from BLM Wyoming's State & Field Offices)

• Blowout Penstemon
• Colorado Butterfly Plant
• Desert Yellowhead
• Ute-Ladies'-Tresses Orchid