Maybe the rain was getting the best of me, or maybe
the thrill of the hunt was clouding my judgment. For five minutes I
had been celebrating my discovery of what looked to be Baker’s
Larkspur, a species that has dwindled to nine plants in a secret location.
The plant has been made a candidate for an endangered species and I
went on a quest to find one.
Following a suite of accidents and mishaps, the entire
native population of delphinium bakeri has been reduced to these
few plants surrounding an exposed culvert along Marshall-Petaluma Road,
and I had managed to find them. But upon second examination, there were
more than nine plants. There were several hundred of whatever I had
found, some leafy equivalent of fool’s gold.
Baker's Larkspur is so rare that experts monitoring
the remaining plants shy away from publicizing their exact location.
Rare plants are always at risk of being stolen. But Doreen Smith, of
the California Native Plant Society, expressed equal concern about risks
from well-intentioned plant lovers. "Someone would think, gee,
I’m going to go save this larkspur myself." Given the past
history of good intentions for bakeri failing miserably, this
cautious pseudo-secrecy seems well advised.
Despite being listed as a rare plant in California
since 1978, and receiving federal endangered species status in 1997,
as well as federal critical habitat protection in 2003, Baker’s
Larkspur has fallen prey to a human comedy of errors. Smith said the
Native Plant Society had repeatedly warned the county of the plants’
location. In return, the county had posted signs and marked the pavement
alongside the site, promising that the plants would be protected. Nonetheless,
the site has inadvertently been mowed twice, and in October 2004, a
backhoe operator excavated nearly the entire population.
Backhoe backlash
Media attention and public support following this
tragedy have improved the plants’ chance of survival. The county
has revised its protocol for roadside repairs. Most recently, Baker’s
Larkspur has become a candidate for state-level endangered species protection.
Following a status update today and a public hearing in early March,
endangered status will likely be conferred in early April, according
to Mary Ann Showers of the California Department of Fish and Game. Even
as a candidate, Baker’s Larkspur already has "the highest
level of protection." California endangered status could open doors
for additional state and federal funding for research and rehabilitation.
Efforts to reintroduce Baker’s Larkspur in more
protected areas are already underway at the UC Botanical Garden with
funding from US Fish and Wildlife. Holly Forbes, curator at the UCBG,
said that nearly 600 seeds had been sown, though it was too early to
tell how many will eventually germinate. She hopes that plants will
be ready for introduction by early next year on one of several candidate
sites that are currently under consideration.
No amount of local, state, or federal regulatory protection
can ensure that the Marshall-Petaluma population is free from harm.
Given the site’s checkered past, it seemed to me that there was
limited future opportunity to see Baker’s Larkspur in its natural
environment. So I set out to find a culvert and nine plants that would
be difficult to recognize. Baker’s Larkspur do not bloom until
April. Even worse, they are deciduous. Odds of finding any bakeri
were slim, but finding the culvert, which had been featured in photos,
seemed reasonable enough to give it a go.
In seach of larkspurs
Marshall-Petaluma Road twists alongside the eroded
banks of Salmon Creek, shouldered to the south by steep hillsides of
ferns, moss and oak. Recent rains have made a mess of much of the roadside.
In many areas, mud and gravel have been excavated from uphill ditches
and dumped on downhill sidings and turnoffs. Bakeri depends on
these unstable conditions, however, preferring to set root in moist
decomposed shale. It enjoys favorable sunshine on roadsides, though
this comes with increased risk of extirpation at the hands of humans.
The culvert in question is not much to look at, but
it is immediately recognizable from the published photographs. The scar
of the backhoe’s cut is only partly obscured by new growth. Even
though this section of roadway is in better shape than much of the rest
of Marshall-Petaluma Road, there is ample evidence of human carelessness:
beer bottles, a twisted and bent mile marker and fence post and shrapnel
from a car at their side. Almost all of the road traffic is from heavy
trucks and tractor-trailers that cross into the opposite lane to round
even this gentle curve, raising a mist that blows onto nine Baker’s
Larkspur which I cannot find.
In a strange twist of fate, the culvert which nearly
doomed the entire population could also explain how the species has
so far escaped extinction. Baker’s Larkspur has seen its range
shrink dramatically in the last centuries as California has become increasingly
dry. In this case, according to Smith of the Native Plant Society, water
drawn to the culvert could have made all the difference. But now, long-term
survival for Baker’s Larkspur seems to hinge almost entirely on
human intervention which may be strengthened by state endangered species
status.