Steamboat buckwheat eriogonum ovalifolium VAR

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded a $100,000 Project Grant to the Nevada Division of Forestry under the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (CFDA 15.615) program. The grant will fund a 3-year project to: 1) Conduct annual monitoring of the federally listed Steamboat buckwheat plant in Washoe County, Nevada from 2023-2027, and 2) Quantify demographic rates, population structure, growth trends, and key life history parameters for the Steamboat buckwheat. This work will build on existing monitoring efforts and help identify the factors inhibiting population viability for this endangered plant species. The results will be documented in a report and peer-reviewed publication to support ongoing management and conservation of the Steamboat buckwheat.

Williamsiae is a federal listed endemic perennial plant in thesteamboat hot springs area of washoe county NV. Existing threats to steamboat buckwheat include humandisturbance geothermal energy development the loss of hot spring flows as well as competition from invasiveand native species. In addition land development has emerged as a potential threat with proposals to buildstructures near or within steamboat buckwheat habitat.sporadic surveys conducted over the last 20 years have found a decline in the relative abundance of smallplants in the steamboat buckwheat population which may indicate a failure in reproduction or the establishmentof new plants that could erode population viability if low recruitment continues. While the steamboat buckwheatrecovery plan explicitly called for the development and implementation of a monitoring plan and research toidentify the factors inhibiting population viability the causes and consequences of observed population trendsare uncertain due to a lack of consistent monitoring.to address this recovery barrier we propose to:objective 1CONDUCT annual monitoring of steamboat buckwheat for three years.objective 2QUANTIFY demographic rates trends in population structure and growth rates from 2023 to 2027AND life history parameters. This work will build on two existing years of monitoring 2023 2024 and an ongoing partnership between theuniversity of nevada reno US fish and wildlife service nevada division of forestry and nevada division ofnatural heritage to guide the management of steamboat buckwheat. The final result of this project will be aquantification of the population trends of steamboat buckwheat the demographic mechanisms underlying thesetrends and key life history traits. This work will also form a repeatable foundation for future work and couldsupport analyses of longerterm trends. Results will be included in a report for partners and peerreviewedpublication.