PORTLAND, Ore.—The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect the Ochoco lomatium under the Endangered Species Act. These rare flowers in the carrot family are limited to only four populations in central Oregon.

Ochoco lomatium lives on rocky scablands near the North Fork of the Crooked River, where cattle grazing, recreation, nonnative plants and wildfire threaten the native ecosystem. The plant’s largest population has declined dramatically in recent years, demonstrating the need for federal protections.

“These pretty plants provide beautiful bursts of color to a rocky and deceptively barren landscape each spring, but they’re in serious trouble and need Endangered Species Act protections if they’re going to survive,” said Drew Baloga, a legal fellow at the Center. “Ochoco lomatium’s resilience is no match for the unsustainable land management practices that are pushing this flower toward extinction.”

As has been the case across much of the West, cattle grazing has facilitated the spread of nonnative grasses in Ochoco lomatium’s habitat. Yet the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service under the Trump administration continue to lease these public lands to cattle owners for grazing. Nonnative grasses like cheatgrass increase fine fuels on the landscape and ramp up the likelihood that wildfires will spread across non-forested patches, which were historically fire-resistant.

“Plants like Ochoco lomatium play a crucial role in limiting the severity of wildfires across the West,” said Baloga. “We need to sustain robust native plant communities to avoid creating tinderboxes of nonnative grasses on our public lands.”