23 



populations is maintained on U.S. Forest Service land 

 in Montana. 



1. Protection of natural habitats that currently 

 support Cirsium longistylum populations . 

 Management plans on the Lewis and Clark National 

 Forest and the Helena National Forest should take 

 all known populations into consideration and 

 prevent disturbance of the sites. 



2. Notification of U.S. Forest Service personnel of 

 sites on U.S. Forest Service lands . To prevent 

 inadvertent impacts on currently known sites, 

 personnel involved in planning activities should 

 be provided with a description and photographs of 

 C. longistylum . It is especially important that 

 engineers, and range conservationists at the 

 Ranger District level recognize this plant in 

 order to avoid disturbing its habitat. 



D. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER ASSESSMENT 



1. Further field surveys of potential habitats . 

 Additional field surveys should be made in central 

 Montana in portions of the Helena National Forest 

 in the Big Belt Mountains to locate and delineate 

 the extent of the range of C. longistylum . 



2. Establishment of monitoring studies to assess 

 population condition and status . Monitoring 

 studies should be continued at several locations 

 to better determine population dynamics and the 

 effects of seed weevil infestation on C. 

 longistylum . 



3. Further systematic studies ; Additional studies 

 are needed on the systematics of C. longistylum , 

 its variation in central Montana, and its 

 relationship to other Cirsium taxa in the area, 

 including possibly Cirsium hooker ianum . Extensive 

 collections from Cirsium populations in the Little 

 Belt Mountains, Big Belt Mountains and the 

 Sawtooth Range should be made and sent to a Dr. 

 Arthur Cronguist, New York Botanical Garden for 

 study and identification. 



