Project Details

San Rafael cactus (Pediocactus despainii; Endangered) is one of five federally listed cactus species in Utah and is the least-studied. The species was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1987 due to its narrow range in south-central Utah and threats from collection, off-road vehicles, livestock trampling, and mineral exploration. The list of threats now also includes recreation, energy development, illegal collection, climate change (USFWS 2015), and inadequate regulatory protections, native and feral ungulate trampling, invasive species, surface disturbance, and disease or predation (USFWS 2020b). A draft recovery plan for San Rafael and Winkler's cactus was published in 2015 (USFWS 2015) but did not include quantitative recovery criteria. In 2021, quantitative recovery criteria for Pediocactus winkleri (Winkler's cactus; threatened) were developed based on seven years of high-quality demographic data from Capitol Reef National Park (USGS 2013; Hornbeck 2021). However, no species-specific recovery criteria have been developed for Pediocactus despainii due to a lack of demographic data. Recovery criteria for threatened and endangered species must be objective and measurable and identify clear thresholds that quantify links between the species' biological status and threats (Schemske et al. 1994; Himes Boor 2013; Doak et al. 2015). Quantitative recovery criteria for Utah's four other federally listed cactus species were developed in 2021 (Hornbeck 2021; USFWS 2023) that were based on size-structured demographic models and quantitative threats analysis methods that followed current species recovery literature (Beissinger and McCollough 2002; Morris and Doak 2002; Murphy and Weiland 2010; Himes Boor 2013; Doak et al. 2015). These analyses are not possible with the currently available data for Pediocactus despainii.
Although this species is morphologically similar to Pediocactus winkleri in its small size, semi-globose shape, and mostly subterranean habit, these species differ in their ranges, habitats, and tolerances to climate, natural disturbances, and human caused threats. These differences are important to our understanding of how populations change over time, and how the species might respond to natural or manmade threats. The five-year review process was initiated for Pediocactus despainii in March 2023 (FR 2023); however, there has been little change in available data or our understanding of the species since the 2016 draft recovery plan (USFWS 2016). Although large populations of the species exist, particularly in the San Rafael Swell, its cryptic habit and lack of field resources have prevented collection of demographic data. A monitoring program was implemented for San Rafael cactus at the Good Water Rim Trail area in the BLM Price Field Office in 2019. This program was designed to quantify threats to the species from mountain biking, dispersed recreation, and other activities on and near the trail, and included demographic methods. However, the monitoring design did not capture enough individuals and plots were widely dispersed throughout the area. Monitoring has been haphazard since 2019 due to resource limitations and other factors. A more efficient monitoring approach is needed.
We propose to implement a rigorous, efficient demographic monitoring program for Pediocactus despainii in the San Rafael Swell that will provide data that quantifies population structure and behavior and that can be used to quantify behavior and trend, develop quantitative recovery criteria, and inform recovery actions and management.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

The goal of the proposed San Rafael Cactus Demographic Monitoring Implementation is to increase our understanding of the species' life history and to support the development of quantitative delisting recovery criteria (Beissinger and McCollough 2002; Morris and Doak 2002; Murphy and Weiland 2010; Himes Boor 2013; Doak et al. 2015). The aim of the proposed project is to implement monitoring at two or more known Pediocactus despainii populations, including the Goodwater Rim, using field-tested methods that will allow efficient data collection and that will support population viability analyses for this species. Measurable objectives are to: 1) establish two or more demographic monitoring sites that comprise a minimum of 40 individuals each and no less than 100 adult cacti in total; 2) quantify interannual changes in plant size (diameter [mm]), population structure (flowering, nonflowering, juvenile, dead), and number of reproductive structures; and 3) quantify habitat composition and threats in Pediocactus despainii habitats. The proposed methods are compatible with existing monitoring programs for Pediocactus winkleri and Sclerocactus wrightiae in Capitol Reef National Park (USGS 2013; Hornbeck 2017; Hornbeck 2024 in prep.), and Sclerocactus brevispinus and S. wetlandicus in the Uinta Basin (SWCA 2013; Hornbeck 2018, 2021; SCMBC 2023). Further, systems and methods are already in place that will allow efficient data management, data visualization, and life history modeling, and for population viability analyses and the development of quantitative recovery criteria in the future (Hornbeck 2021).

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

The study sites will be selected in coordination with BLM and USFWS biologists. However, we will attempt to utilize existing monitoring locations on and near the Goodwater Rim to the extent feasible. The largest known concentrations of San Rafael cactus occur in the Wedge and Millsite areas of the Price Field Office (PFO; USFWS 2015). These areas were surveyed in 2015 (USFWS 2015); however, recent surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023 (A. Roe, personal communication) have provided up to date information and identified additional populations and potential study sites. As stated in the objectives, the aim of this project is to establish study locations that can be monitored efficiently with minimal resources. As such, monitoring sites will focus on areas that are relatively accessible and with known populations.
Beyond broad distributions and local abundances, we know very little about this species. To date, there have been no studies that document the species' life history, survival, growth, or reproductive biology sufficient to support management decisions, let alone less demographic modeling or population viability analyses. While this is a core challenge for any rare plant species, expanding threats from increased dispersed recreation, roads, energy development, invasive species, and climate change signal that the time to establish demographic "baseline" conditions for this species is long past. Even with the establishment of a rigorous monitoring program in 2025, it will be 2030 before we have a dataset that will allow analysis of population trend. Statistically valid population monitoring for this species is long overdue and recovery criteria cannot be developed, much less recovery achieved, until a demographic monitoring program is initiated.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

The proposed project consists of three tasks: 1) Study site selection, coordination, and logistics; 2) Demographic monitoring program implementation and first year data collection; and 3) Data management, analyses, and reporting. This is a one-year project, but the monitoring is expected to be continued by agency biologists and can be expanded to include additional populations or cactus species in the future. The study will be implemented in spring 2025 during Pediocactus flowering (April-early May).
Task 1. Study Site Selection, Coordination, and Logistics. Manzanita Botanical will coordinate with the Utah U.S. Fish and Wildlife species lead (Lark Willey), BLM Utah (Aaron Roe), and BLM PFO (Dana Truman and Green River District Regional botanist TBD) on preferred monitoring locations, and the timing and logistics for monitoring implementation. The proposed budget for Task 1 comprises 4 hours for coordination (4 x $75.00 = $300.00), 4 hours of in-kind labor from Manzanita Botanical Consulting (4 x $75.00 = $300.00), and an estimated 4 hours of in-kind coordination from agency biologists (4 x $100.00 = $400.00), total $1,000.00.
Task 2. Demographic Monitoring Program Implementation. 
San Rafael cactus possesses contractile roots (PÃÂ¼tz 2002; Garrett et al. 2010) that allow it to retract underground during extreme temperatures. This results in plants often being partially or entirely retracted below the surface of the soil and difficult to detect. Further, the species' ability to remain recessed underground for one or more years makes repeat monitoring and inventories difficult (USFWS 2015). San Rafael cactus typically flowers in late March to early May with fruits developing from May to June (Heil 1984). Due to the species cryptic, recessed habit, monitoring will take place during flowering with any assessments of reproductive outputs (fruits and seeds) occurring later.
The methods for study plot selection and monitoring methods will follow the methods used in the Uinta Basin (SWCA 2013; Hornbeck 2018), with a 1-meter square sampling frame serving as the primary sampling unit. We assume that a 1-meter square plot size is an appropriate scale for measuring local habitat features and local seed dispersal for the species, and that each sampling unit is independent; however, the study individuals are necessarily clustered into a local 'subpopulation' in order to allow researchers to maximize field efforts and minimize travel between individual plots. Study individuals will be selected randomly in a GIS where current survey data are available, or systematically on site where current geographic information is lacking. Random sampling will entail stratification of potential study sites by soil type or another natural criterion to limit bias towards roads and development. Once study sites are selected, onsite individual plant selection will occur by meandering searches with careful observation for non-flowering and juvenile plants, and every third individual encountered selected for monitoring. As stated elsewhere, each monitoring site sample should comprise a minimum of 40 adult plants and the total monitoring sample should include no fewer than 100 adult plants. A large sample size is required for analysis of interannual changes in structure and behavior.
The 1-meter square plot is centered on the selected individual plant and an aluminum tag with a unique identifying number is placed 0.5 meters south of the stem. The following demographic parameters were recorded for each cactus stem within the 1-meter square quadrat: stem identification code; stem (ramet) diameter (mm); life stage (seedling, nonflowering, flowering, dead); number of buds, flower, and fruits; and any damage or signs of predation to either the stem or fruits. The following habitat parameters will be recorded for each 1-meter square quadrat: frequency of occurrence in three nested subplots (0.25-meter, 0.50-meter, and 1.0-meter) for rock cover (by type and/or fragment size), bare soil, litter, native plant species, invasive plant species, and disturbance (hoof prints, foot prints, tire tracks by vehicle type, trailing, rilling, erosion, etc.). Species-specific datasheets will be prepared that include a plot map that allows researchers to diagram and label each individual cactus and any branches or seedlings with in the 1-meter square plot. The geographic location of each monitored individual will be recorded (either on the datasheet or in a tablet or GPS). Datasheets will be quality checked before departing the monitoring site, scanned, and delivered to the managing agency.
The proposed budget for Task 2 comprises 60 hours for field work (60 x $75.00 = $4,500.00), reimbursement for vehicle mileage (400 miles x $0.670/mile = $268.00), lodging (4 nights x $175.00/night = $700.00), expense reimbursement (5 days x $50.00 per day = $250.00), and an estimated 100 hours of in-kind coordination and field support from USFWS and PFO botanists (100 x $100.00 = $10,000.00), total $15,718.00.  
Task 3: Data Management, Analyses, and Reporting. The first year (2025) monitoring data will be compiled into species-specific demographic and habitat databases in Microsoft Excel. The demographic data will be summarized by location (subpopulation), life stage (flowering, non-flowering, juvenile), and size (stem diameter [mm]). For individuals with more than one stem, the stem diameters will be summed to provide a total plant size estimate. Once two or more years of data have been collected, the demographic monitoring data can be classified into size classes and compiled into stage-fate data frames and analyzed in RStudio (RStudio 2023.09.0 Build 463 ÃÂ© 2009-2023 Posit Software, PBC; R Core Team 2022 version 4.2.1) with functions included in the 'popbio' package (Morris and Doak 2002; Stubben and Milligan 2007; Stubben et al. 2020) to obtain interannual transition rates for survival, stasis, growth, retrogression, and fecundity (i.e., vital rates). Detailed demographic data analysis objectives and methods are provided in Hornbeck (2021). The habitat data will be summarized into site-specific species lists and quantitative estimates of cover frequency by broad cover type (disturbance, rock, bare, litter, shrubs, forbs, grasses, invasive species). 
The proposed budget for Task 3 comprises 40 hours of labor (40 x $75.00 = $3,000.00), 20 hours of in-kind labor from Manzanita Botanical Consulting (20 x $75.00 = $1,500), total $4,500.00.
The total project budget comprises $7,800.00 in labor, $1,218.00 in expenses, $1,800.00 in Manzanita Botanical in-kind, and $10,400.00 in agency partner in-kind, total $21,218.00.
All tasks will be completed no later than June 30, 2025, with project methods and results submitted to ESMF as part of project reporting and provided to USFWS species leads and agency stakeholders. Future monitoring results will be used to develop stochastic demographic models to allow analysis of ecological conditions (climate, disturbance, etc.) on population trajectories. A minimum of five years of demographic monitoring data of a minimum annual dataset of approximately 100 individuals will be required for population viability analyses (the basis for quantitative recover criteria).
Literature Cited:
Beissinger, S.R., and D.R. McCollough (eds.). 2002. Population Viability Analysis. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London. 577 pp.
Doak, D.F., G.K. Himes, V.J. Bakker, W.F. Morris, A. Louthan, S.A. Morrison, A. Stanley, and L.B. Crowder. 2015. Recommendations for improving recovery criteria under the US Endangered Species Act. BioScience 65(2):189-199 + Appendices. 
Federal Register. 2023. Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Initiation of 5-Year Status Reviews of 27 Listed Species in the Mountain-Prairie Region. FR Volume 88 Number 48:15448-15451.
Garrett, T.Y., C. Huynh, and G.B. North. 2010. Root contraction helps protect the "living rock" cactus Ariocarpus fissuratus from lethal high temperatures when growing in rocky soil American Journal of Botany 97(12):1951-1960.
Himes Boor, G.K. 2013. A framework for developing objective measurable recovery criteria for threatened and endangered species. Conservation Biology 28(1):33-43.
Hornbeck, J.H. 2017. Monitoring cattle impacts on cactus species in Capitol Reef National Park: demographic analysis results 2013-2016. Prepared for Capitol Reef National Park, Torrey, Utah. 45 pp.
Hornbeck, J.H. 2018. Sclerocactus wetlandicus (Uinta Basin Hookless Cactus) and Sclerocactus brevispinus (Pariette Cactus) Range-Wide Demographic and Habitat Monitoring: Years 1-5 (2012-2016) Final Report. Prepared for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Utah Ecological Services Field Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Mountain-Prairie Regional Office, Denver, Colorado. 90 pp.
Hornbeck, J.H. 2021. Utah Cactus Quantitative Recovery Criteria Development -- revised. Prepared for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Utah Ecological Field Services Office, West Valley City, Utah. 112 pages + appendices.
Morris, W.F., and D.F. Doak. 2002. Quantitative Conservation Biology: Theory and Practice of Population Viability Analysis. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates, Inc.
Murphy, D.D., and P.S. Weiland. 2010. The route to best science in implementation of the Endangered Species Act's consultation mandate: the benefits of structured effects analysis. Environmental Management 47(2):161-172.
PÃÂ¼tz, N. 2002. Contractile roots. Pages 975-987 in: Y. Waisel, A. Eshel, and U. Kafkafi (eds). Plant roots: The hidden half, 3rd edition. Marcel Dekker, New York, New York.
Schemske, D.W., B.C. Husband, M.H. Ruckelshaus, C. Goodwillie, I.M. Parker, and J.G. Bishop. 1994. Evaluating approaches to the conservation of rare and endangered plants. Ecology 75(3):584--606.
Sundance Consulting and Manzanita Botanical Consulting (SCMBC). 2023. Sclerocactus range-wide monitoring field data collection, analysis, and reporting: FY 2023 Report. Contract 47QRAA18D00AS. Prepared for the Bureau of Land Management, Vernal Field Office, Vernal, Utah. 46 pages.
SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA). 2013. Uinta Basin hookless cactus (Sclerocactus wetlandicus) and Pariette cactus (S. brevispinus) range-wide demographic and habitat monitoring: Year one report. Cooperative Agreement No: 60181BJ553 Project No: ES11UT013. Prepared for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region, Lakewood, Colorado and Utah Ecological Field Office, West Valley City, Utah. March 18, 2013. 48 pp. 
The R Foundation. 2022. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Core Team 2022 version 4.2.1. Vienna, Austria: The R Foundation. Available at: https://www.R-project.org. 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). 2015. Winkler cactus (Pediocactus winkleri) and San Rafael cactus (Pediocactus despainii) recovery plan. Technical/agency draft. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, Colorado. xii+ 133 pp.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). 2013. Range-wide Monitoring of Cattle Impacts on Two Federally Listed Cacti Species in Capitol Reef National Park. U.S. Geological Survey. April 30, 2013. 18 pages.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.