SURVEY FOR SENSITIVE PLANT SPECIES 

 ON BLM LANDS IN THE VICINITY OF LEMHI PASS, BEAVERHEAD COUNTY 



Prepared by 



Prepared for 



Jim Vanderhorst 

 Montana Natural 

 State Library 

 1515 E. 6th Ave. 

 P.O. Box 201800 

 Helena, Montana 



Heritage Program 



59620-1800 



USDI Bureau of Land Management 



Butte District 



P.O. Box 3 3 88 



Butte, Montana 59702-3388 



STATE DOCUMENTS COLLECTION 



JUN 22 1994 



HELENA, MONTANA 59620 



INTRODUCTION 



This report describes a botanical survey of BLM lands in 

 the vicinity of Lemhi Pass in Beaverhead County, Montana. The 

 main purpose of this study was to locate and survey 

 populations of potential sensitive or watch species as 

 proposed by the Bureau of Land Management (USDI Bureau of Land 

 Management 1993) . These are taxa identified by the State 

 Office of the Bureau of Land Management as warranting 

 sensitive or watch designation based on global rarity, state 

 rarity, and threats. 



Surveys to determine the location and size of populations 

 of rare species are being conducted on public lands throughout 

 the west as a result of the Federal Endangered Species Act of 

 1973 and subsequent Bureau of Land Management species 

 conservation initiatives. Surveys provide baselines needed 

 for the process of developing a list of "sensitive" plant 

 species which occur on BLM lands in Montana and for addressing 

 their conservation in the management planning process. 



THE STUDY AREA 



Lemhi Pass is located on the Continental Divide in the 

 Beaverhead Mountains along the Montana/ Idaho state line. The 

 area which was surveyed consists of land in seven sections 

 just to the north of the pass. These are mostly uplands, but 

 some bottomlands of Bloody Dick Creek are included. 



The study area lies mostly to the north of the Lemhi Pass 

 thorium district, where stratigraphy has been described in 

 depth (Geach 1972, Staatz 1979). The basement rocks of the 

 Beaverhead Range in this vicinity are Precambrian sedimentary 

 rocks of the Belt series, but here, at least in the Shesher 



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