Federal protection for geocarpon minimum (earth fruit tiny) TIM began in 1987 when IT was determined to be a threatened species based on its limited distribution destruction of its habitat…

Federal protection for geocarpon minimum (earth fruit tiny) TIM began in 1987 when IT was determined to be a threatened species based on its limited distribution destruction of its habitat succession and forestry activities. At that time the species was only known from 13 populations in missouri and four populations in arkansas. Since the initial listing populations have also been found in louisiana in 1990 and texas in 2004. Prior to 2023 forty populations with an estimate of 48000 total individuals were known. Twenty of these sites are protected and seventeen of these are considered viable. G. Minimum has a global conservation status rank of G2 or imperiled and is at high risk of extinction or collapse due to restricted range few populations or occurrences steep declines severe threats or other factors. Arkansas missouri and louisiana have all assigned the species a subnational conservation status rank of S2 while IT is considered an S1 critically imperiled or at very high risk of extirpation in the jurisdiction due to very restricted range very few populations or occurrences very steep declines severe threats or other factors in texas. In march of 2023 g. Minimum was discovered on sandstone glade sites at areas managed by the U.S. Army corps of engineers at skiatook lake in osage county oklahoma. These were the first known sandstone glade sites for g. Minimum outside of missouri and texas. These sites were resurveyed in the spring of 2024 and additional sites were located at the blue river (johnston county) and osage (osage county) wildlife management units. This project will fund a third year of surveys in 2026 helping US understand the species persistence from year to year and potentially allow US to locate additional sites. There is only one known site for the endangered ptilimnium nodosum in oklahoma and IT is vulnerable due to anthropogenic activities and competition from nonnative invasive species. The site should be regularly monitored as has occurred in previous years with USFWS funding. I propose to resurvey all known oklahoma sites of geocarpon minimum. The modified methods of bridges which were used in the 2024 surveys at two of the sites will not be continued as they were found to be too disruptive to the habitat. Instead i will attempt to make an estimate of the size of the populations note the general overall condition of the habitat and assess any potential threats. I will also continue to search for new sites populations. If additional populations are found they will be surveyed as detailed above. The locations of any documented populations will be added to the oklahoma natural heritage inventory database of rare species occurrences. Locations of populations will be provided to the appropriate property managers landowners for management purposes. I will also visit the one known oklahoma population of the endangered ptilimnium nodosum to monitor its status. I will collect geographic coordinates of the populations location using a GPS unit estimate the number of individuals present note the condition of the habitat and assess any threats. This information will be reported to USFWS. The oklahoma natural heritage inventorys database of rare species occurrences will also be updated to reflect the species status in oklahoma