Photo © Robert K. Moseley

Rare Plant Guide to the Pocatello and Idaho Falls Field Offices,

Bureau of Land Management

(Click here to go directly
to the Rare Plant Guide)

Introduction. The Bureau of Land Management's Pocatello Field Office and Idaho Falls Field Office oversee the management of approximately 2.65 million acres of public land in southeastern Idaho. This part of the state includes many well known and popular areas such as the Little Lost River and Birch Creek valleys, Craters of the Moon, South Fork Snake River, St. Anthony Sand Dunes, Bear Lake, and portions of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. These areas contain a diversity of habitats, ranging from sagebrush and lava plains to lush wetlands and riparian corridors. The ecologically rich landscape encompassing the Pocatello and Idaho Falls Field Office areas contributes significantly to Idaho's biodiversity. One example of this high biodiversity value is the large number of rare plant species found in the region. Rare plant conservation is an important management priority for the Idaho Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and this Rare Plant Field Guide is made possible because of their support. The plants represented in this guide are known or suspected to occur on lands administered by BLM.

Objective. The primary objective of this field guide is to assist BLM personnel and their contractors to identify BLM special status plants in southeastern Idaho. However, the guide is available to anyone interested in rare plant conservation in the region. Printed materials on rare plant species are often quickly outdated given the dynamic nature of our knowledge of their distribution, abundance, and conservation status. Production of this field guide in an easily-updated electronic format provides a solution to this problem. In addition, the electronic format will allow users to download individual species accounts to customize their personal reference manuals or field guides.

Contents. The first edition of this rare plant guide contains 30 Idaho BLM special status vascular plant species. Each species account contains a description of the plant, field identification tips, notes on similar species and phenology, and habitat and distribution information. Most accounts include photographs, an illustration, and an Idaho distribution map.

References that contain additional or supporting information are listed at the end of the species accounts. Keys to species and more technical descriptions are available in other sources including Intermountain Flora, Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Utah Flora, and Flora of North America.