WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated 783 acres of San Diego and Riverside counties in California as critical habitat for the San Diego ambrosia, a perennial herb listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2002.
The agency's action is part of a settlement agreement in a suit brought by the Center for Biodiversity after the agency failed to designate critical habitat for the ambrosia within one year of its listing as endangered.
The small blue gray herb spreads by slender rhizome like roots and is known to occur only in San Diego and Riverside Counties and Baja, Mexico. Normally found on flat or gently sloping grasslands and on the upper terraces of river drainage basins, the ambrosia's habitat has been threatened by urban development and recreational activity.
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