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Recommended best management practices for Gunnison milkvetch (Astragalus anisus): practices developed to reduce the impacts of road maintenance activities to plants of concern

Date

2014-05

Authors

Smith, Gabrielle, author
Panjabi, Susan Spackman, author
Colorado Natural Heritage Program, publisher

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Abstract

Gunnison milkvetch (Astragalus anisus) is a small plant in the Fabaceae (Pea Family) that is known only from the Gunnison Basin in Gunnison and Saguache counties, Colorado, and is considered to be imperiled at a global and state level (G2G3/S2S3; Colorado Natural Heritage Program 2014). One of the biggest conservation issues for this imperiled plant species is the lack of awareness of its existence and status. Avoiding or minimizing impacts to this species during road maintenance activities will effectively help to conserve its habitat and is unlikely to confer substantial impacts on road maintenance goals and projects. The Best Management Practices (BMPs) included in this document are intended to help increase the awareness of this species for anyone involved in road maintenance activities. The desired outcome of these recommended BMPs is to reduce significantly the impacts of road maintenance activities to the Gunnison milkvetch on federal, state, and/or private land. The BMPs listed here are intended to be iterative, and to evolve over time as additional information about the Gunnison milkvetch becomes available, or as road maintenance technologies develop. The intent of these BMPs is to inform people working along roadside areas regarding the importance of Gunnison milkvetch, one of Colorado's botanical treasures, and to outline some of the ways in which this species can coexist with road maintenance activities. The implementation of these recommendations will help to assure that maintenance activities proceed without unintended harm to these globally imperiled plants.

Description

Prepared for: Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado Natural Areas Program.
May 2014.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 9-11).

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Subject

plant habitat
noxious weed management
Gunnison milkvetch
species profile

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