Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Rule To Determine Endangered or Threatened Status for Six Plants From the Mountains of Southern California

The Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) determines endangered status pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act), for two plants, Poa atropurpurea (San Bernardino bluegrass) and Taraxacum californicum (California taraxacum), and determines threatened status for four plants, Arenaria ursina (Bear Valley sandwort), Castilleja cinerea (ash-gray Indian paintbrush), Eriogonum kennedyi var. austromontanum (southern mountain wild buckwheat), and Trichostema austromontanum ssp. compactum (Hidden Lake bluecurls). These six plant taxa are found in the San Bernardino, San Jacinto, Laguna, and Palomar mountains of southern California. They are imperiled by one or more of the following factors--destruction and degradation of habitat by urbanization, off-road vehicle (ORV) use, trampling, recreational development, domestic animal grazing, livestock grazing, alteration of the hydrological regimes, competition from introduced plants, over collection, and hybridization (genetic absorption) by alien species. This rule implements the Federal protection and recovery provisions afforded by the Act for these six plants. A notice of withdrawal of the proposal to list Arabis johnstonii (Johnston's rock-cress), which was proposed for listing along with the six plant taxa considered in this rule, is being published in the Federal Register concurrently with this final rule.