For Release: Immediate #CCal-05-13
Contact: John Scull (916) 985-4474

BLM Site Closed to Public to Protect Rare Plants

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced today that it has placed an emergency closure of approximately 240 acres of public land in Amador County to public entry in an effort to protect a rare species of manzanita from the spread of a pathogen, Phytophthora cinnamomi, which is related to the organism responsible for sudden oak death.

Deane Swickard, BLM Folsom Field Office Manager, said the closed area includes the Ione Manzanita Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). An ACEC is a Federal designation intended to protect the Ione manzanita, listed as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The range of the Ione manzanita is limited to soils derived from the unique Ione Formation near the community of Ione in Amador County.

The pathogen is not specific to manzanita species, but will attack many other species, including ornamentals, such as those sold in local nurseries. It can be spread by people driving or walking through infected areas and then into non-infected areas. Infected plants experience rapid desiccation and mortality at the onset of hot weather.

Even before the closure, there was no legal public access to the closed lands; only neighboring landowners could enter these lands, although some individuals used the area for unauthorized recreation. Any person who violates this closure by entering the closed area without written permission from the BLM may be subject to Federal penalities.

For more information, please contact the Bureau of Land Management, Folsom Field Office, 63 Natoma Street, Folsom CA 95630, or call (916) 985-4474.

-BLM-

Folsom Field Office, 63 Natoma Street, Folsom, CA 95630
Visit our web site: www.ca.blm.gov/folsom