Rapid Assessment of Endangered Plant Species, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

Forest Ecologists, Brian Daley (Geographic Consulting) and Mike Morgan (University of the Virgin Islands) observe erosion and a small, newly formed headcut in close proximity to several Catesbaea melanocarpa trees.

Ecologists at Geographic Consulting have completed field data collection on three populations of Buxus vahlii and one population of Catesbaea melanocarpa.  All plants were marked with Trimble GPS units, flagged and tagged with numbered metal tags in our preliminary work. Accuracy tended to be within 30 cm. This is intended to facilitate completion of the population assessments and also allow for comparative measures (height, caliper measure, phenology, health assessment, etc.) We glad to have key assistance from Mike Morgan, Agroforestry Research Specialist at the University of the Virgin Islands, Agriculture Experiment Station on multiple field days. Thank you also to David Hamada, Executive Director of the St. George Village Botanical Garden. Mr Hamada participated in the informal assessment of C. malanocarpa in 2006 and will now ensure our specimens are properly mounted and stored in the botanical garden’s herbarium.

Initial observations indicate the plants are all producing fruit and many show evidence of seedlings in the understory. This is always encouraging news for populations with so few individuals.

Cateabaea melanocarpa seedlings grow abundantly below parent plants, an encouraging sign for the future

The C. malanocarpa site was previously at risk from grazing cattle, but the animals were removed and this risk seems to be all but eliminated at this time.  Wildfire is still likely a threat to this, the only population on St. Croix. A newly observed exotic  cat-tail species (Typha species) has spread from another property into the C. melanocarpa site. The extent and severity of the threat is unknown. We are in the process of comparing spatial data from 2006 to this year’s data to determine if changes are observable.

Results from our preliminary analysis will be available on this website, and from the funding agency, the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

Biologist, Jennifer Valiulis, , takes a caliper measurement of a federally endangered catesbaea melanocarpa during rapid assessment of the polulation.

Forest Ecologists, Brian Daley (Geographic Consulting) and Mike Morgan (University of the Virgin Islands) observe erosion and a small, newly formed headcut in close proximity to several Catesbaea melanocarpa trees.