The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is releasing a revised recovery plan draft for the endangered plant, sentry milk-vetch, and is requesting comments. The recovery plan provides updated downlisting and delisting criteria for the rare plant. The 30-day public comment period will close on Oct. 21, 2024.
Sentry milk-vetch was listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act in 1990 with the first recovery plan finalized in 2006. The plant is limited to the South Rim and the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park in Coconino County, Arizona. Since 2006, updated knowledge about the species and progress with its recovery efforts have necessitated revisions to the recovery plan.
“Sentry milk-vetch grows on the rim of the Grand Canyon, and the translation of the plant’s Latin name, cremnophylax, means ‘watchman of the gorge,’” said Jessica Miller, Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the Service’s Arizona Ecological Services Field Office. “It’s a big job for such a little plant, and we want to be sure it continues to watch over the Canyon. We are thankful to the National Park Service and other partners for their continued conservation efforts to conserve and recover the sentry milk-vetch.”
Sentry milk-vetch is a perennial herb in the pea family that develops into flat, small mats in pockets of shallow soil within the Kaibab limestone, the uppermost rock layer of the Grand Canyon. Its purple flowers, approximately the size of a pencil eraser, commonly attract several kinds of mason bees and other small pollinators. The plant is long-lived, possibly living for upwards of 50 years.
The recovery strategy focuses on ensuring and maintaining resiliency at sentry milk-vetch populations at six sites across two ecotypes (the North Rim and the South Rim). Recovery objectives include increasing the understanding of potential effects from threats (such as climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change , bison trampling, and the loss of genetic diversity), identifying substantial threats, implementing conservation measures to improve resiliency, and maintaining resilient sentry milk-vetch populations.
Recovery plans are advisory documents, not regulatory documents. They provide a framework for guiding a species’ recovery and the criteria that we expect, when met, will indicate that federal protection is no longer necessary. The revised draft recovery plan describes actions that are considered necessary for recovery of the species, establishes delisting criteria and estimates the time and cost to implement recovery actions for the species. Implementation of the recovery actions for the sentry milk-vetch will include working with the National Park Service, nongovernmental organizations, academia and other conservation partners.
An electronic copy of this draft recovery plan is available on the Service's website. It is also found on ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/8439 and reports.ecosphere.fws.gov. The Service encourages the public, federal and state agencies, Tribes and other stakeholders to review the revised recovery plan draft and provide comments. Please submit information by email to shaula_hedwall@fws.gov. The Service will consider comments received by Oct. 21, 2024.
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