Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive Plants (TES)

One of the goals of the Forest Plan is to maintain and restore quality, amount, and distribution of habitats to produce viable and sustainable populations of native and desirable non-native plants and animals.  Objectives within this goal that pertain to rare species include protecting the habitats these species use, implementing recovery or conservation strategies or plans, and coordinating with the state in rare species protection.

At this time, no plants on the federal list of Threatened and Endangered Species are known from the GMNF.  The TES plant program, therefore, focuses on Regional Forester Sensitive Species (RFSS)

Currently, the plant RFSS program on the GMNF has four components:

• Incorporating information about RFSS into project reviews
• Inventory and monitoring
• Habitat management
• Administrative studies

photos by Gudrun B. Keszocze

• To help with rare plant monitoring throughout New England, consider getting involved with the New England Plant Conservation Volunteers  (http://www.newfs.org/volunteers/conservation-volunteers.html )
• To learn more about rare plants in Vermont, visit the Vermont Nongame and Natural Heritage website (http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/wildlife_nongame.cfm )
• For more information about the TES Plant Program in Region 9 of the USDA Forest Service, visit their web site (http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/wildlife/tes/index.html ).