Recovery Plan for Northern Monkshood (Aconitum noveboracense)

摘要

Perspective. This recovery plan for northern monkshood, Aconitum noveboracense (Ranunculaceae), is one of the first attempts at managing a plant designated under provisions of the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. The passage of this legislation offered biologists the first opportunity on the national level to protect plants deemed to be in danger of extinction through a legislative vehicle. However, preservation of a species does not simply occure as a benefit of listing; considerable responsibility is placed upon the shoulders of botanists, state and federal agencies, the general public and politcians to improve the lost of any species listed as nationally endangered or threatened. Northern monk was listed as a federally threatened species on April 26, 1978 (43 FR 17916). Ironically, it was a major threat to a major population of northern monkshood which focused national attention and early research leading to its inclusion as one of the first plant species listed under the federal law. In 1996, several extensive colonies of northern monkshood were discovered in the basin of a proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control and recreation reservoir along the kickapoo River in Southwestern Wisconsin. This discovery as well as that of several other rare plant species, prompted several Wisconsin Botanist to petition the U.S. Fish and Wildlife in 1974 to list northern monkshood as Endangered.