For many of Utah's SGCN and additional endemic plant taxa, many data gaps remain regarding abundance, trends, distribution ranges, threats, taxonomic status, and life history traits. Utah currently has 30 plant species on the state SCCN list. Further, the BLM and USFS each have over 100 plant species on their respective 'sensitive' lists that could easily be elevated to potential listing under the ESA given the aforementioned data gaps. In order to address these data gaps as comprehensively as needed to reduce the state's vulnerabilities for potential listings under the ESA, the program needs knowledgeable and experienced botanists to continue with conservation actions, ranking updates, plant surveys and monitoring and associated tasks. To work toward delisting and avoid potential listings of Utah's high rate of plant endemism, the Utah Species Recovery Office (part of UDWR), in cooperation with Utah State University, has assumed responsibility as the premier provider of rare plant species distribution and abundance through its highly functional observation database. It is hoped that with the ongoing interest and participation of multiple partners in this database may boost their financial support of the program to be able to support one additional full-time benefitted employee to this program.

An overarching goal of the Utah Rare Plant Program is to encourage partner participation in the prioritization and the formulation of recovery actions for plants currently listed under the ESA and conservation actions on plants most at risk of becoming listed under the ESA. Several objectives stem from this goal: 1) Assure decisions are being made on the most current and comprehensive information possible; 2) Assure that all funding for potentially rare plant taxa is spent toward effective and efficient work and 3) Increase partner participation and funding for the state rare plant program to create a sense of ownership in rare plant work across agencies. As such, concerted efforts by the state rare plant team include careful maintenance of the database, regular communication with all partners to share information per the state's GRAMA laws, prioritize work collectively and assure the program as a whole follows through with all obligations. Task 1- Field Data collection on prioritized species. Summer 2022 and Spring 2023. The majority of the prioritized species listed below have been put forward by consensus between the BLM, USFWS, USFS and the Utah Rare Plant Program. Some field work efforts are currently and will continue to be funded by our partners such as the BLM, USFS and USFWS, thus requiring less financial assistance from the state. With adequate support from ESMF and partners, we are planning to have at least two teams of two field botanists for the field season to enable more coverage of the state. It should be noted that priorities can change depending upon the season's precipitation and temperature that can change the phenology of the target plants enough to render them difficult to impossible to correctly identify. Additional funding from other partners is always pursued throughout the fiscal year. Target taxa for survey and monitoring FY2023 include: Scientific Name Land Ownership Reason(s) for data needs Astragalus desereticus UDWR, Private USFWS De-listing monitoring data needed Saxifraga cernua, Saxifraga flagellaris ssp crandallii, Synthrys alpina USFS MLSNF Forest Planning, USFS 'sensitive' species, need monitoring Euphorbia nephradenia BLM, SITLA BLM sensitive, little data available Astragalus sabulosus, A. vehiculus, A. iselyi BLM, SITLA, UDOT Conservation Agreement species, USFWS listing workplan species Logan Peak endemic species (11 to 12 species) USFS More baseline data needed prior to potential Mtn Goat augmentation Spiranthes diluvialis URMCC Listed threatened, Diamond Fork monitoring and USFWS and EPA Superfund Site outside Park City needs a survey for mitigation purposes Allium geyeri var chatterleyi, Penstemon navajoa, Erigeron Abajoensis USFS MLSNF forest planning/ 'sensitive' species -- Abajo range Penstemon tidestromii, Cryptantha creutzfeltdii, Hedysarum occidentale var canone, Aquilegia rubicunda USFS, BLM MLSNF forest planning/ 'sensitive' species -- foothills of Wasatch Plateau Participation in the Penstemon Conservation Team for range-wide monitoring Centarium namophilum BLM Listed species in CA and NV, reported near Deep Creeks, need to revisit Task 2 - Winter office work Due to the large amounts of data the crew and other botanists generate over the field season and the interest in these data from our partners, time is needed to perform various office tasks such as organize, ingest and analyze data, generate reports, work on our common field guide, continue conservation priority rankings, outreach to partners and the public, support program goals, update AGOL applications used by our team and partners, and develop species distribution models. The participation of the rare plant team is also valuable for fulfilling duties for the Penstemon Conservation Team, updating and refining our Collector app and Utah Pollinator Pursuit app, and presenting our work at various meetings.

Utah's landscapes have been developed over the millenia through its historic geology. This geology has created a multitude of habitats for many of Utah's rare and endemic plants. A lack of information on many of these habitats and plants presents a vulnerability for the state for potential listings under the ESA in the future. Information must be sought on these habitats and the rare plants within them to assure their persistence to avoid additional listings under the Endangered Species Act.

Rare and sensitive plants often need to be considered in land management planning and actions of the state, our partner agencies and/or cooperating private partners. The information generated from the proposed species updates and field surveys will assist these entities in project planning. Further, where sufficient data exist, habitat suitability models can be generated to further assist land management planning to streamline required surveys for project proponents or management actions.

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The state rare plant conservation coordinator has submitted information to the BLM on personnel working on rare plant surveys for collection permits for Threatened and Endangered plant species. Collection permits are often required by the USFWS to verify species identification. Collection permits are mandatory to collect T&E species voucher specimens.

For the tasks stated above, the associated methods are proposed. Each of these protocols is applicable to each task: 1) The state rare plant conservation coordinator will engage with partners and the state rare plant committee regularly to discuss rare plant priorities as well as needs for surveys, monitoring, research and ranking. 2) Three to four part-time qualified botanists will have access to data and equipment of the Rare Plant Team through their term of employment. They will be trained on the new State database to QA/QC incoming data, query data, and ingest new data sets into the new database. This database has become essential for the state and our partners to make informed decisions on upcoming priorities for rare plant work. 3) Three to four part-time qualified botanists will be employed over the state's fiscal year to carry out carefully focused and directed field surveys and/or monitoring or other types of field work as agreed upon by the Utah Rare Plant partnership. 4) Reports from the Utah Rare Plant Program will be submitted to the appropriate partners on an agreed upon format and a contractually mandated date that meets the needs of the partners and the State. All Rare Plant team members take part in producing reports.

Although the Manti LaSal NF has funded the rare plant team to carry out monitoring on several of their rare species, the type of agreement being used does not allow for travel expenses. As such, the funding from ESMF allows this work to be accomplished. Monitoring efforts will continue for Astragalus desereticus as part of the 5-year post delisting plan using methods consistent with past efforts to best be able to make the most reliable comparisons of population trend possible. Further, monitoring efforts may be continued for Astragalus anserinus, even though a 5-year study on the population trend for this taxon terminated in FY2022 as part of a Conservation Agreement. Further, some members of the team will take part in the range-wide monitoring for Penstemon albifluvis and Penstemon grahamii as a partner of the Penstemon Conservation team.

The state office and some field offices of the BLM and the Manti LaSal National Forest are considered financial partners for FY2023 as these partners have contributed to the Utah Rare Plant team. Other partners that have been included in our partners meetings and discussions involving prioritizing work going forward include: Utah PLPco, USFS, USFWS, SITLA, NPS and NRCS

Timely management and reporting of field data are necessary for scientifically sound and defensible land use planning decisions. Management of sensitive plants within land use management plans is best informed through the ongoing efforts, administration and management of efforts such as those carried out by the Utah State Botany Team.

Some monitoring efforts may uncover some potentially unsustainable browsing or grazing of particular taxa, either from domestic livestock or wildlife. Should this occur, the rare plant will aim to be part of a partnership to reach potential solutions.

07/01/2022

06/30/2023

2023

Methods used for rare plant surveys and monitoring were chosen and implemented according to each taxa's characteristics and life history traits. Methods used for conservation ranking followed NatureServe's calculator and included Level 3 threats. These methods are effective and well accepted.

Final stand alone report attached. Over the fiscal year 2023, the Rare Plant Team covered approximately 20,000 acres for rare plant surveys, installed needed monitoring plots, evaluated and assigned 120 conservation rankings through the NatureServe ranking calculator, added 29,213 records to our database (16,238 of which were target species), and completed 25 species to post on the Division of Wildlife Resources common field guide. All of this work takes not only the funds provided to the Rare Plant Team by the Endangered Species Mitigation Fund (ESMF), but funds provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), US Forest Service (USFS) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to be able to successfully accomplish the work mentioned above to collectively address and prioritize data gaps on Utah's rich botanic endemism. Through funding, meetings and conversations from and with all of our partners, important information gains can be made on Utah's rare flora to allow more complete analyses of threats, trends, and distribution in order to prioritize conservation strategies and actions.

Ongoing surveys and monitoring for targeted rare plants will continue with input from partners. The collective prioritizatin and methods used is the best way to ensure cooperation and participation from agencies, consultants and professional botanists alike.