The Loch Lomond Vernal Pool Ecological Reserve is a nature reserve of in the community of

Loch Lomond Loch Lomond (; ) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault (HBF), often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the Highlands.Tom Weir. ''The Scottish Lochs''. pp. 33-43. Published by ...

Lake County, California Lake County is a County (United States), county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 68,163. The county seat is Lakeport, California, Lakepor ...

. It is one of 119 ecological reserves managed by the

California Department of Fish and Game The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), formerly known as the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), is an American state agency under the California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages ...

(CDFG). The ecological reserve system was authorized by the state legislature in 1968 for the purpose of conservation and protection of rare plants, animals and habitats. The

vernal pool Vernal pools, also called vernal ponds or ephemeral pools, are seasonal pools of water that provide habitat for distinctive plants and animals. They are considered to be a distinctive type of wetland usually devoid of fish, and thus allow the saf ...

provides habitat for the rare and endangered Loch Lomond button celery ('' Eryngium constancei'') (also called coyote-thistle and Constance's coyote-thistle). The button celery was first collected in the vernal pool in 1941, and not until the late 1990s was there another discovery at two other locations in Lake County and one location in Sonoma County. The southern portion of Lake County is in the

Mayacamas Mountains The Mayacamas Mountains are located in northwestern California in the United States. The mountain range is part of the Northern Inner Coast Ranges, of the California Coast Ranges System. Geography The Mayacamas Mountains are located south of th ...

of the

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte County, California, Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Trans ...

. Nearby

Cobb Mountain Cobb Mountain is the tallest mountain in the Mayacamas Mountains of California. Location Cobb Mountain's main summit is located in Lake County, west of the town of Cobb. Like nearby Mount Saint Helena, Cobb Mountain is tall enough to receiv ...

(4,722 ft) is the highest peak. Although extensively logged in the past, this area still has

Ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

sugar pine ''Pinus lambertiana'' (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree and has the longest Conifer cone, cones of any conifer. It is native to coastal and inland mountain areas along the Pacific coa ...

, and

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...

, as well as black oak, with an underbrush of

manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus '' Arctostaphylos''. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from Southern British Columbia and Washington to O ...

, ground rose, coffeeberry, and California lilac.

Background

The Loch Lomond button celery was listed as endangered under the federal

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting and conserving imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of e ...

in 1985 as an emergency measure due to the threat of

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

from proposed dredging and filling of the vernal pool.The Loch Lomond Draft Management Plan, CA Dept. of Fish and Game, Sept 1994 p.4 The land was purchased by the CDFG on March 28, 1988, for $46,000 with funds provided by the State Public Works Board and the California Wildlife Conservation Board. A post and rail fence was installed by CDGF to limit access. Historically, the area was used as a recreation field for baseball games, horseback riding, ice-skating, volleyball and cycling and was adjacent to the Loch Lomond Lodge, a popular resort until destroyed by fire on August 14, 1967.

Loch Lomond button celery

In 1941, Robert Hoover collected the first specimen of button celery, although the plant is named for botanist

Lincoln Constance Lincoln Constance (February 16, 1909 – June 11, 2001) was an American botanist and administrator at the University of California, Berkeley. Constance worked with Marion S. Cave for over twenty years to identify how many chromosomes different me ...

who, together with M.Yusuf Sheikh, collected samples from the vernal pool in 1973. Sheikh continued to search other areas for the button celery as part of his doctoral thesis, but found no other populations. In 1984, California state botanists also conducted a search for other populations with no success. The emergency listing in the ''Federal Register'' by the

US Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats in the United States. ...

(USFWS) occurred in August, 1985 (50 FR 31187) to prevent the possible

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

of the species. (At the time, the Reserve had the only known population. Since the 1990s, three more populations have been found.) The emergency listing expired on March 29, 1986, and a new proposed rule was submitted by USFWS on March 26 which included public notification and request for comments. A Final Rule was issued and the button celery was federally listed as

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

on January 22, 1987. The landowner was planning construction of a pool or lake at the site and excavation had already begun, so the disturbed area was graded and reseeded with button celery. Other threats included off-highway vehicles, people treading through the meadow, and illegal dumping. During the rainy season, off-road vehicles are still a problem, and the Department of Fish and Game was surveying the property for installation of new fencing in 2009.

Other rare plants

*Many-flowered navarretia (''Navarretia leucocephala ssp. plieantha'') The many-flowered navarretia is state (1979) and federal (1997) listed as endangered. It grows in wetland habitats near Ponderosa pine woodlands. An annual wildflower of the Phlox family (''

Polemoniaceae The Polemoniaceae (Jacob's-ladder or phlox family) are a family of flowering plants consisting of about 27 genera with 270–400 species of annuals and perennials native to the Northern Hemisphere and South America, with the center of diversity ...

'') that has only been found in the California counties of Lake, Sonoma and Napa. The plant form is a prostrate mat, flowers are clusters of white or blue with the bloom period in May through June. Identification is difficult as the many-flowered navarretia closely resembles the few-flowered navarretia and Baker's navarrettia and will hybridize with few-flowered navarretia. *Few-flowered navarretia (''Navarretia leucocephala ssp. pauciflora'') The few-flowered navarretia is state (1990) and federal (1997) listed as endangered. Very similar to many-flowered navarretia, differences include smaller white or blue flowers and the plant stems are white with purple streaks. The species account from US Fish and Wildlife Service, Sacramento reports that only

Napa County Napa County () is a County (United States), county north of San Pablo Bay located in the Northern California, northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 138,019. The county seat i ...

has a population of few-flowered navarretia remaining. Historically, there were populations at the Loch Lomond reserve, Boggs Lake reserve, and in Sonoma County.

Footnotes

References

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service status sheet on Eryngium constance.

California Native Plant Society's page on the Loch Lomond button celery

External links