Thirteen established plants have died since 1989. 

 As at the Park Mine transect, the plants at 

 Discovery Mine showed no reproduction in 1991. 

 This represents an even moresevere reproductive 

 decline in this case, as 24 of the 47 plants 

 present in the transect in 1990 had flowered and 

 produced fruit (see Fig. 2) . As at the French 

 Creek - Park Mine site, no fruits could be 

 collected in order to determine seed production. 

 Of the populations in the three study transects, 

 the French Creek - Discovery Mine population has 

 been the most stable over the three-year study 

 period in terms of total numbers. However, until 

 1991 it had the lowest density of plants per m^. 



The total number of plants in the Badger Pass 

 North transect decreased by 57 in 1991, resulting 

 in a 53.3% population decline from 1990. Sixty- 

 seven established plants died between 1989 and 

 1991. This transect contained the only fruiting 

 plants found in 1991, but the percentage of such 

 plants was much reduced from 1990 levels (18%, 

 compared to 45.8% fruiting in 1990) (see Figure 

 3) . Other measures of fecundity, including the 

 mean number of fruits per fruiting plant, the mean 

 number of fruits per inflorescence, and the mean 

 number of seeds per fruit, were also reduced from 

 1990 levels. The percentage of aborted flowers 

 increased to its highest level to date in this 

 transect for the three-year study period. Lastly, 

 the percentage of flowering stems browsed in this 

 transect increased from 2.9% in 1990 to 20.0% in 

 1991. 



The rosettes of most of the surviving plants in 

 the three transects were much reduced in vigor in 

 1991. They were much smaller in size, and the 

 majority of the green leaves appeared to have been 

 damaged by insects. Thus, it is possible that 

 many plants will continue to perish in future 

 seasons, owing to their severely weakened 

 condition. 



The reasons for the severe population declines are 

 currently unknown. Ongoing drought conditions in 

 Montana, possibly coupled with extremely cold 

 weather during the winter of 1990-91, may be 

 contributing factors. No evidence of severe 

 direct disturbance, i.e., from grazing or other 

 vegetation-disturbing activities, has been 

 observed in the three transect locations over the 

 last three years. A weather data recording 



