Vermont’s rare plant list updated for first time in 10 years

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(Host) Scientists have determined that some of the thousands of plants in Vermont are more rare than previously believed. And they’ve discovered that a few have even disappeared.

As VPR’s Ross Sneyd reports, the conclusions were drawn when the state updated its list of rare wild plants.

(Sneyd) The rarest of all the 2,000 or so plants in Vermont is the Jesup’s milk vetch. It’s only found in three spots along a 15-mile stretch of the Connecticut River.

And state botanist Bob Popp says the vetch plant’s fate illustrates the threats to many of Vermont’s rare plants.

(Popp) "The Vermont population is very much endangered because it’s being overrun by this invasive species called swallow-wort. And we’re actually applying herbicide to the swallow-wort to try and beat it back. But there’s no way we can eradicate the swallow-wort. We’re just trying to keep it at a distance."

(Sneyd) Non-native species are among the biggest threats to Vermont plants. Popp says about 25 percent of all the plants in the state are invasives.

An even bigger threat comes from humans. Popp says there are 153 species on Vermont’s list of endangered and threatened plants.

(Popp) "The biggest reason for that unfortunately is habitat loss and habitat degradation and it’s due to development and that’s an unfortunate situation."

(Sneyd) Climate change also looks like it’s going to affect plant populations, but there’s not a lot of hard evidence, yet, that scientists can point to.

Vermont maintains a list of rare and uncommon wild plants that’s separate from the threatened and endangered species. The goal is to keep scientists, planners, developers and the public informed about the health of the plant world.

Rose Paul of the Nature Conservancy of Vermont says the list is an invaluable and trusted resource. She says it helps groups like hers save important habitats, such as one the conservancy recently protected in Pownal.

(Paul) "This site has one of the greatest concentrations of rare plants in the whole state. And because of the Heritage Program’s information, we acted to begin buying properties, working with willing landowners, in order to protect this interesting condition that makes it possible for these plants to live there."

(Sneyd) Paul says she downloaded the list as soon as she learned the state had updated it for the first time in 10 years.

Seventy plants were added to the list because some populations have declined, others have been found to be rarer than previously thought, and others were newly discovered. Almost as many plants were discovered to be more common, so some of them were taken off the list altogether.

But 15 species were moved to "historic," meaning they haven’t been seen in the field for 25 years or more.

For VPR News, I’m Ross Sneyd

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