Conservation Strategy for Pink Sand-verbena (Abronia umbellata ssp. breviflora)

Pink sand-verbena (Abronia umbellata ssp. breviflora) is a northwestern United States regional endemic of shoreline habitat along the Pacific Coast of North America, from British Columbia to California. It is a Species of Concern with the USFWS and listed as endangered by the State of Oregon. The species is also considered endangered in Washington (Washington Natural Heritage Program 1994), and it is considered threatened or endangered throughout its range by the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center (ORNHIC) and the California Native Plant Society (Skinner and Pavlik 1994, ONHP 2001, ORNHIC 2004). Pink sand-verbena is on the BLM and USFS Sensitive Species lists.

•  Extensive field surveys have been conducted for this species in Washington, Oregon, and California, primarily on public lands, by qualified botanists from federal and state agencies as well as non-governmental organizations (e.g., Gamon, Alverson, and Sprague 1986, Kaye 2003).
•  Known populations in Oregon occur on land managed by the Siuslaw National Forest, Bureau of Land Management’s Coos Bay District, as well as Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Most of the remaining populations are widely isolated from one another providing little opportunity for genetic exchange except through long-distance seed dispersal.
•  Primary threats include low population numbers and isolation, competition and habitat alteration by invasive plants, such as European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria), off-road vehicles, winter storms, and herbivory by wildlife and insects.
•  The purpose of this Conservation Strategy is to identify and support management and restoration actions that will remove or limit threats to pink sand-verbena and provide for its long term survival range-wide, and thus reduce the need to federally list the species as threatened or endangered.
•  Successful implementation throughout the range of the species will require the cooperation of the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and state agencies in Washington, Oregon and California as well as agencies in British Columbia.
•  Because information on this species will continue to accumulate and new populations may be discovered, this document may be amended at intervals as needed.The life of this Conservation Strategy will be ten years (through 2016), after which time the status of pink sand-verbena, along with the objectives and methods included in the strategy, will be re-evaluated, and if necessary, extended. At three year intervals the participating parties will review progress achieved at each managed population.