Federal government bans new mining in critical zone for rare SoCal flowers

(CN) — More than 2,800 acres of land where endangered and unique endemic plants grow in California’s San Bernardino National Forest will be spared from the harms of mining, the Bureau of Land Management announced Friday, placing a 50-year ban on new mining in the area.

Four endangered plant species exist only within the national forest, thanks to deposits of particularly rich and pure calcium carbonate — the very same material that's mined for construction and building material, cement and agricultural lime. Cushenbury buckwheat, the Cushenbury milk-vetch, the Cushenbury oxytheca and Parish’s daisy, thrive in soils composed of ancient coral reefs. 

Back in 2003 the California Native Plant Society began negotiating a deal with mining companies in the area, the Land Bureau, the County of San Bernardino and the U.S. Forest Service, which administers the Carbonate Habitat Management Area in the forest.

The Forest Service submitted the plans, which allow mining in some areas and preserve plant habitats in other area, as a request to the Land Bureau.

“This was a long time coming. That’s for sure,” said Ileene Anderson, the California deserts director for the Center for Biological Diversity. She previously worked at the California Native Plant Society. 

“It follows through what was envisioned 20 years ago,” she added. 

The plan bans new mining interests in the area for 50 years, with the possibility of renewing the order, in 2,841 acres of National Forest System land and 280 acres of non-federal land in the boundaries of the forest.  

Anderson said the order gives the critically endangered plants a chance for survival. 

“They’re quite attractive plants for sure,” Anderson said, “but they like this one soil type, so it’s not like you can grow them elsewhere.”

Companies can continue mining in parts of the forest that aren't protected, to the destruction of some flowers, but Anderson said she's still celebrating the long-awaited compromise. She didn't think it would happen in her lifetime.

Aaron Sims, the rare plant program director at the California Native Plant Society, called the forward-looking mining protection "a key step in protecting these highly restricted rare and endangered plants, whose habitat has already been significantly reduced by mining.”

“High-grade calcium carbonate can be found in many other places, but the only place on the planet where these special plants live is confined to a small area in Southern California, primarily on the northern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains,” Sims said in a press release put out by the Center for Biological Diversity.

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