Effort under way to save rare flower at Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- Crews are planting a rare flower along the shores of Lake Tahoe in an effort to bolster its numbers.

The Tahoe yellow cress is found only in the Tahoe Basin and is eligible for a listing under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Crews this week planted 800 seedlings on south shore's Baldwin Beach, and plan to plant about 800 more through next week at Zephyr Cove, Sand Harbor and Emerald Bay.

"These flowers are as much a part of Lake Tahoe as the deep blue water," said Bruce Pavlik, a consultant who wrote a conservation plan for the flower.

The planting program is part of a three-year, $250,000 study designed to preserve the Tahoe yellow cress and prevent a listing as an endangered species.

"The federal listing would impact all activities on federal land," Pavlik told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "It would mean curtailing recreation access. It would just have this tremendous ripple effect on the basin. Everyone is coming together to try to avoid that."

Various agencies joined to develop a strategy to protect the plant after surveys in 2000 found it growing in only 14 locations and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans to consider listing it.

The flowers are confined to a handful of sites around the lake because they won't grow on beaches popular with people.

A basin-wide survey of the flowers is conducted each September and a record 20,301 flowers were found last year.

But officials said the number is misleading because the Tahoe yellow cress flourishes during drought years and becomes scare during wet years. That's because more shoreline is available for it to grow on as the lake's level drops.

Last year's count occurred after another dry winter.

"The main purpose (of the plantings) is to see how the plants do in various kinds of habitat conditions," said Rex Norman, a spokesman for the Forest Service. "And the second purpose is to hopefully increase the population."

While the Tahoe yellow cress has little problem growing and spreading its seeds, it has a tendency to come and go from locations, Pavlik said.

Gail Durham, Forest Service botanist, said she thinks the flowers will do well in their fenced-off locations.

"If you protect the habitat, the plant will come," she said.