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Show Endangered Plant Species survey conducted A survey of endangered or threatened plant species growing in central and southern Utah coal lands is being conducted by a team of 10 botanists from Brigham Young University. Dr. Stanley L. Welsh, professor of botany and range science and curator of plants for the Monte L, Bean Life Science Museum now under construction, is project director being assisted by fellow faculty members and graduate and undergraduate students. Results of the survey will be reported to the Inter-Agency Inter-Agency Task Force on Coal, which is a joint organization sponsored by the U. S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U. S. Geological Survey. The government agencies will then release the information in-formation to the public after the results are turned over to them in September. The survey project team is working 26 planning units for the BLM and Forest Service in the two coal regions, collecting specimens and determining which plants thrive in each unit. These include southern coal area, the Henry Mountain sector, the Wasatch Plateau sector, and the San Rafael Swell sector and regions eastward. "We are looking for the locality of proposed endangered en-dangered and threatened plant species so that we can determine the steps necessary to avoid these plants with narrowly restricted ranges as the coal lands are developed," Dr. Welsh said. He noted that there are about 60 endangered en-dangered plant species in Utah. "In order for a plant to be placed on the endangered species list, it must meet two criteria; the known area of distribution must be very small, and there must be some prospect that it could be destroyed," the botanist pointed out. Dr. Welsh said that the plant kingdom in the United States is now being surveyed for possible anti-cancer and anti-tumor agents. He pointed out that all plants prevent erosion and that science has yet to learn the many other functions they could have, especially in the medicinal areas to help man. The botanist said that the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the Environmental Protection Act of 1969 requires studies of this nature in an area prior to economic development. |