2. Present legal or other formal status. 



A. International: None. 



B. National. 



1. United States. 



a. Present designated or proposed legal 

 protection or regulation: U. S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service : Currently, the species 

 is included in Category 2 of the U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service Notice of Review 

 (U.S. Department of Interior 1990), under 

 consideration for federal listing as a 

 threatened or endangered plant species. 

 Category 2 taxa are those "...for which 

 information now in possession of the 

 Service indicates that proposing to list 

 them as endangered or threatened species 

 is possibly appropriate, but for which 

 substantial data on biological 

 vulnerability and threat (s) are not 

 currently known or on file to support the 

 immediate preparation of rules." 



See I.E. regarding the taxonomic 

 contingency to proposing listing. 



b. Other current formal status: 



Eriaeron lackschewitzii was on the first 

 Region 1 Sensitive Plant list of the U.S. 

 Forest Service as "Watch" based on its 

 presence in two national forests and 

 limited distribution, though without 

 recognized threats (USDA 1988) . The 

 Watch criteria were redefined in the 

 1991 list revision, such that Watch 

 species with low degrees of threat 

 were excluded from consideration, 

 including E. lackschewitzii (Lesica and 

 Shelly 1991b) . It is being tracked by the 

 Lewis and Clark National Forest as a 

 national forest species of concern because 

 it is endemic, though it has no fomnal 

 designation. The species is currently 

 ranked as "threatened throughout its 

 range, but having taxonomic questions a 

 associated with it" (Nature Conservancy 

 global rank = G2Q as assigned by the 

 Montana Natural Heritage Program; Lesica 

 and Shelly 1991a) . This rank has no legal 

 status. 



