Action: Support Rule Change to State Endangered Plant Law
If you love our native plants, now is a good time to speak on their behalf. Watch the video until the end for an URGENT action item on how you can help save rare and endangered plants in New Mexico.
WE NEED TO STRENGTHEN CONSERVATION EFFORTS FOR ENDANGERED PLANTS
The continued decline of the plants listed on the NM State endangered plant list over the past several decades has shown that we need stronger laws and improved conservation efforts and funding for those efforts.
New Mexico state botanist at the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department is proposing a rule change that acknowledges that stronger efforts are needed to protect and conserve New Mexico’s endangered plant species. This will strengthen the language in the law to better protect our endangered native plants from energy development, road building, and other severe impacts.
As one Federal lands manager in New Mexico stated: “The new rule will finally add protections for state-listed endangered plants by requiring a permit for state approval prior to any action that will destroy / kill state-listed plants. New Mexico has over 100 plant species that are endemic to the unique soils, deserts, canyons, and mountains in the state, some of which I've had the pleasure to meet.
More paperwork isn't always the answer, but putting some hurdles in the way of new bulldozing activity (roads, energy production, etc) across in-tact ecosystems with unique assemblages of living creatures not found anywhere else on the planet feels deeply and genuinely important. Worth paying attention to. Worth asking, is this worth it?”
Attend the virtual meeting on November 10th at 9am to support a Rule Change to the State Endangered Plant Law that will strengthen the law and give endangered plants the same protections as animals.
CHANGE THE STATE LAW
Please attend the virtual meeting NOVEMBER 10th to speak https://www.emnrd.nm.gov/sfd/public-meetings/
And/or send your comments to wendy.mason@state.nm.us
Comments can be as simple as: “I am writing to state my support for the Rule Change to the NM State Endangered Plant Law to strengthen the law and give native and endangered plants similar protections afforded to animals.”
If you would like to add more detail in your comments, see the TALKING POINTS below.
Summary of the language change to the proposal:
"EMNRD proposes to amend the definition of "take" to include harm, kill, and destroy because the current rule does not reflect the intent of NMSA 1978, Section 75-6-1 to protect and conserve endangered plant species as it only regulates the removal of endangered plants with the intent to possess, transport, export, sell, or offer for sale. The current rule does not regulate the harm, killing, or destruction of endangered plants from other activities or the intentional destruction of endangered plants. The proposed amendments are in response to a decline in New Mexico’s endangered plant species over recent decades which indicates that stronger efforts are needed to protect and conserve New Mexico’s endangered plant species. The new definition of take more closely tracks the statute but exempts certain agricultural and tribal religious practices."
BULLET POINTS:
Current federal and state laws provide almost no protection to most threatened and endangered plants.
Although the Federal Endangered Species Act (FESA) protects Federally listed animals wherever they live, it allows nearly unlimited destruction of Federally listed threatened and endangered plants and their habitats outside of Federal lands – where more than 70% of Federally listed plants live.
Federal laws offer only limited protections on federal lands, almost no protection otherwise. Rare plants that do not happen to live on Federal land are forced to rely on state laws for protection. But these laws are inconsistent and often make little or no provision for conservation of plants.
While plants make up 57% of endangered species in the United States, they receive only a fraction of the legal protection and conservation funding that is provided for animals. In 2011, plants received 5% of funding under the Endangered Species Act compared to 95% going to animals. The situation is similar for New Mexico funding of plant conservation.
On New Mexico State Lands, endangered plants are currently only protected from collection and sale, not from destruction, harm, or killing.
Science tells us that plants and animals are inextricably intertwined and contribute equally to the health and survival of the ecosystems that sustain us all. If we are to conserve healthy ecosystems and biological diversity, we cannot pick some species to save and ignore others.
In 1998, American botanists James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler defined Plant Blindness as "the inability to see or notice the plants in one's own environment," which leads "to the inability to recognize the importance of plants in the biosphere and in human affairs." All too often, plants are ignored or overlooked for conservation efforts and protection. In New Mexico, this has resulted in the continued decline of the plants listed on our State endangered plant list over the past several decades.
This rule change acknowledges that stronger efforts are needed to protect and conserve New Mexico’s endangered plant species.
The rule change will allow plants to receive protections that endangered animals are already afforded in our state.
Threats from unrestrained and poorly planned development, excessive logging, mining, and other activities are at unprecedented levels. A recent report by the World Conservation Union found that as many as 29% of plant species in the U.S. are at risk of extinction.
New Mexico has 235+ rare plants species. 109 are found nowhere else in the world. 11% of New Mexico’s native plant species are at risk of extinction.
To prevent extinctions, our laws need to mandate plant protection from damage or eradication in situ not only from removal. New Mexico laws need to protect the ecosystems where rare plants occur to be effective.
Click here to see other talking points from Native Plant Society of the United States.
