Dorn (1984) and to all the species in the Pacific 

 Northwest in Hitchcock and Cronquist (197 3) . 



PRESENT LEGAL OR OTHER FORMAL STATUS 



1. FEDERAL STATUS 



a. U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE: This species 



is currently placed in Category 2 by the U.S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service (U.S. Department of 

 Interior 1990) . Category 2 refers to those 

 taxa for which listing as threatened or 

 endangered is possibly appropriate, but for 

 which additional information is needed to 

 make the decision. 



b. U.S. FOREST SERVICE: Cirsium longistylum was 



listed as Watch by the Forest Service, Region 

 1 (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1988) 

 because it is common in areas of Lewis & 

 Clark National Forest. However in 1991 this 

 species was dropped from consideration due to 

 a decision to redefine the "Watch category" 

 and drop all Watch species which actually 

 occurred on Forest Service lands (Lesica and 

 Shelly 1991b) . This decision is in apparent 

 contradiction with its Category 2 status, 

 signifying Endangered Species Act support but 

 not mandate for considering it under Section 

 7 consultations. 



It is recommended that genetic work supported 

 by both federal agencies be conducted to 

 resolve questions about hybridization and 

 degree of introgression under both natural 

 and unnatural disturbance regimes before it 

 be dropped from consideration or proposed for 

 listing. 



2. STATE: The state of Montana does not afford legal 

 status to plants. The Montana Natural Heritage 

 Program (Achuff 1991) ranks the species as S3 

 ("either very rare and local throughout its range, 

 or found locally, even abundantly at some of its 

 locations, in a restricted range, or vulnerable to 

 extinction throughout its range because of other 

 factors, 21-100 occurrences"). Cirsium 

 longistylum is listed as Sensitive in the state of 

 Montana by Lesica and Shelly (1991a) . Neither 

 the above rank or status provide any legal 

 protection in the state of Montana. 



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