U. S. Department of the Interior BLM-Alaska Open File Report 90 Bureau of Land Management BLM/AK/ST-03/010+6700+025 July 2003 Alaska State Office 222 West 7th Avenue Anchorage, Alaska 99513 Toolik Lake Research Natural Area / ACEC Rare Plant Inventory, 2002 Amy Breen Carroll, Carolyn Parker, Tim Craig Cover Photo Claytoniella bostockii (A. E. Pors.) Jurtz (photo by M. Tachibana). Authors Amy Breen Carroll works with the Institute of Arctic Biology as well as the Biology and Wildlife Departments at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Carolyn Parker is a research associate at the University of Alaska Museum Herbarium in Fairbanks. Tim Craig is a Wildlife Biologist in the BLM-Alaska Northern Field Office. The BLM Mission The Bureau of Land Management sustains the health, diversity and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. Disclaimer The mention of trade names or commercial products in this report does not constitute endorsement or recom­ mendation for use by the federal government. Open File Reports Open File Reports issued by the Bureau of Land Management-Alaska present the results of inventories or other investigations on a variety of scientific and technical subjects that are made available to the public outside the formal BLM-Alaska technical publication series. These reports can include preliminary or incomplete data and are not published or distributed in quantity. The reports are available while supplies last from BLM External Affairs, 222 West 7th Avenue #13, Anchorage, Alaska 99513, telephone (907) 271-3318; and from the Juneau Minerals Information Center, 100 Savikko Road, Mayflower Island, Douglas, AK 99824, (907) 364-1553. Copies are also available for inspection at the Alaska Resource Library and Information Service (Anchorage), the USDI Resources Library in Washington, D. C., various libraries of the University of Alaska, the BLM National Business Center Library (Denver) and other selected locations. A complete bibliography of all BLM-Alaska scientific reports can be found on the Internet at: http:// www.ak.blm.gov/affairs/sci_rpts.html. Related publications are also listed at http://juneau.ak.blm.gov. Toolik Lake Research Natural Area / ACEC Rare Plant Inventory, 2002 Amy Breen Carroll, Carolyn Parker, Tim Craig BLM-Alaska Open File Report 90 July 2003 U. S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Abstract The Bureau of Land Management-Alaska Northern Field Office and the University of Alaska Museum Herbarium entered into an agreement to search for rare plants in the Toolik and Galbraith Lake Areas of Environmental Concern (ACEC) in the northern foothills of Alaska’s Brooks Range. The information gathered in this project will enable the Bureau of Land Management to address management issues concerning the conservation of rare plant species that occur on these lands. Claytoniella bostockii (A. E. Pors.) Jurtz (Portulaceae) [ = Montia bostockii (A. E. Pors. ) Welsh] was found during the inventory in the Toolik Lake ACEC. In addition, the inventory revealed that this plant is more common in the area than previously thought. C. bostockii was found in several vegetation complexes, but most fre­ quently in the Moist and Dry Nonacidic Tundra complexes. Acknowledgements This work is the result of an agreement between the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Northern Field Office and the University of Alaska Museum Herbarium. Tim Craig of the Bureau of Land Management’s Northern Field Office initiated and secured the funding for this project. We are grateful to Dave Murray, Curator Emeritus of the University of Alaska Museum Herbarium, for his assistance with the nomenclature of Claytoniella bostockii. We also wish to thank Marilyn and Skip Walker for sharing their Toolik Lake vegetation data and Anne-Lillian Schell and the Alaska Natural Heritage Program for sharing their line drawing of Claytoniella bostockii. Lastly, we thank Andrew Balser, Toolik Field Station GIS and Remote Sensing Manager, for providing maps of the Toolik Lake region and for assisting with the construction of inventory maps. i Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................... i Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Methods ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Results and Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 2 Literature Cited................................................................................................................................... 3 Figures Figure 1. Map of Alaska showing the location of the Toolik Lake Field Station ............................. 10 Figure 2. Toolik Lake RNA and General Land Status Map ............................................................ 11 Figure 3. Map of the 2002 Rare Plant Survey Area around Toolik Lake ....................................... 12 Figure 4. Line drawing of Claytoniella bostockii ............................................................................ 13 Figure 5. Aerial photograph map of Claytoniella bostockii occurences within the 2002 Toolik Lake ACEC Survey Area ........................................................ 14 Figure 6. Vegetation map showing Claytoniella bostockii occurences within the 2002 Toolik Lake ACEC Survey Area ........................................................ 15 Tables Table 1. List of possible rare plants within the Toolik Lake ACEC ................................................... 4 Table 2. Definitions of rare species ranks used by the Alaska Natural Heritage Program............... 5 Table 3. One mile2 sections surveyed for rare plants in the Toolik Lake ACEC in 2002 .................. 6 Table 4. Claytoniella bostockii occurences within the 2002 Toolik Lake ACEC Survey Area .......... 7 ii Introduction 2000, Carolyn Parker, personal communication; Tables 1 and 2). The inventory began in 2002 and Nearly 140,000 acres managed by the Bureau of will occur over the next 5 years, as funding is Land Management in the vicinity of Toolik and available. This project will enable the Bureau of Galbraith Lakes, located in the northern foothills of Land Management to address management issues Alaska’s Brooks Range, were identified as Areas of concerning the conservation of rare plant species that Critical Environmental Concern in 1991. These occur on these lands. This report outlines the work lands include the Toolik Lake Research Natural Area accomplished during the 2002 field season. (RNA) and the Galbraith Lake Outstanding Natural Area (Figs. 1 and 2). The Toolik Field Station, Methods which is administered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is located in the Toolik Lake RNA. In July and August 2002, we inventoried lands in Currently, 88 different Long-term Ecological the vicinity of the Toolik Field Station, including all Research (LTER) sites are permitted within the high use research areas and the lake perimeter. To Toolik RNA. These projects and other future accomplish this, we surveyed a 3 x 3 mile area development may affect the native vegetation within (5,760 acres or 23.31 km2) with Toolik Lake at its these Areas of Critical Environmental Concern center. These dimensions were selected to coincide (ACEC). with section lines that provided a clear boundary for the survey area (Fig. 3). We further divided the The Dalton Highway Utility Corridor study area into square mile sections and then Management Plan (USDI 1989) and a subsequent searched each of these sections for rare plants. We report (Lipkin and Parker 1995) indicate two rare walked line transects that were no more than 400 m plants, Claytoniella bostockii (A. E. Pors.) Jurtz. apart within each of these sections and oriented (Portulacaceae) [= Montia bostockii (A. E. Pors.) transects either north to south or east to west. Search Welsh] (Fig. 4) and Erigeron muirii Gray areas were recorded on 1 mile2 aerial photographs of (Asteraceae), occur in the Toolik Lake ACEC. In the area and for each rare population encountered we addition, the management plan indicates a high recorded: probability of the occurrence of rare plants in the 1. the approximate location on the map using a Galbraith Lake ACEC. This document directs the GeoExplorer 3 GPS unit (Trimble Navigation Limited, Bureau of Land Management to “inventory ACECs Sunnyvale, CA) for populations covering more than to delineate crucial habitat for Montia bostockii..” 5000 m2 and and to monitor crucial plant habitats and populations 2. the exact location via a GPS point for populations covering less than or equal to 5000 m2. in the Galbraith Lake ACEC. In addition, a rough estimate of the population To this end, the U. S. Department of the Interior, size and associated vegetation complex was Bureau of Land Management, Northern Field Office recorded, following the classification established by and the University of Alaska Museum Herbarium Walker (2000) and Walker et al (In prep). The entered into an agreement to search at least 3,000 inventory began July 11 and concluded July