[PCA] Examples of inadvertant destruction

[Steve Erickson]

I'm looking for examples of catastrophic destruction of small plant
populations by e.g., residential or commercial development, road work
and maintenance, etc. In other words, situations where a small population
or occurrence was abruptly destroyed or severely impacted by people, even
when the occurrence was not apparently declining. There needs to be
some sort of documentation, such as a report, news story, or . . . The
plant species doesn't necessarily have to have been subject to formal
protection or recognition as rare.

This is relevant to changes we've proposed to our county's regulations for
designating and protecting plants as being "of local importance."
Currently, this requires detailed repeated censuses that demonstrate a
decline. It fails to consider abrupt destruction from, e.g. development and
raod work, which is the largest threat . In other words, the ordinance does
not base designation and protection on the actual threat level, which in
our rapidly developing area is mostly independent of any biological
factors other than size, distribution, and number of occurrences.

So, if you know of any instances where small plant populations have been
abruptly destroyed or damaged with no prior warning by development or
road work, please contact me off list.
-Steve Erickson
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Whidbey Environmental Action Network
Preservation     Education     Restoration
Box 53, Langley, WA   98260
(360) 579-4202
wean at whidbey.net
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