Plant and herb enthusiasts who wish to comment on the proposed listing of two native V.I. species, Agave eggersiana and Solanum conocarpum, on the federal Endangered Species List have until Feb. 19 to do so.
"They don’t grow anywhere else on the planet. That’s what makes them so special," said Rudy O’Reilly, a botanist who works for the V.I. Resource, Conservation and Development Council.
Native to St. Croix, Agave eggersiana is a robust, perennial herb that can grow from 16 to 23 feet tall. Its flowers are large and funnel- or tubular-shaped. O’Reilly said he knows of two plants growing in the wild at Gallows Bay. Any others on St. Croix are used as landscaping.
Native to the island of St. John, Solanum conocarpum is a thornless flowering shrub, which may reach more than nine feet in height. There are about 200 known individual examples in the wild, and most are within the V.I. National Park.
"Over 90 percent of the population is on park service land," Rafe Boulon, the park’s resource management chief, said. He added that many of them are on land that was recently donated or in the process of being donated to the park. Both are adjacent to the park.
One parcel was 2.1 acres at Nanny Point donated by Maho Bay Camps owner Stanley Selengut through the Trust for Public Land. The second was 5.5 acres from a private land owner donated through National Parks Foundation.
The Planning and Natural Resources Department’s Division of Fish and Wildlife first filed for inclusion on the Endangered Species List in 1996. Boulon, who then worked for Fish and Wildlife, and then-Director Barbara Kojas made the initial application.
After evaluating the two species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided in March 2006 not to include the them on the Endangered Species List because it did not have sufficient information to determine the true status of either species in the wild and could not determine if either species met the definition of threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. However, the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in 2008 in federal court to force Fish and Wildlife to consider listing the two species.
According to the court-approved settlement between Fish and Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity, Fish and Wildlife will make a decision whether to include Agave eggersiana on the Endangered Species list by Sept. 17 and Solanum conocarpum by Feb. 15, 2011.
Fish and Wildlife’s Tuesday press release indicates that it wants information on the species’ biology, range, and population trends, including habitat requirements, genetics and taxonomy, historical and current range including distribution patterns, historical and current population levels, and current and projected trends, and past and ongoing conservation measures for the species and/or its habitat.
The agency will base its decision on the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of the species’ habitat or range; overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; disease or predation; the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms or other natural or man-made factors affecting its continued existence.
Fish and Wildlife also wants to know about propagation and planting efforts conducted for these species across the territory.
Mail or hand-deliver comments to Public Comments Processing, Attn:
FWSDocket No. FWS-R4-ES-2009-0090); Division of Policy and Directives Management; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222; Arlington, VA 22203.
Additionally, comments may be submitted at http://www.regulations.gov. Search for docket FWS (Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2009-0090) and then follow the instructions for submitting comments.