Maritime National

• Main Authors: G. Vernon Byrd, Jeffrey C. Williams
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Atka; Davidson; Christensen; Adak; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.422.3857; http://alaska.fws.gov/fisheries/endangered/pdf/management_plan_aleutian_shield_fern.pdf

1 The endangered Aleutian shield fern, Polystichum aleuticum is known from only two locations, Atka and Adak islands in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska (Lipkin 1985), making it one of the rarest and most restricted plants in North America. The Atka population has not been relocated since its original discovery in 1932 (Christensen 1938), in spite of repeated attempts (e.g., Smith and Davidson 1988). In 1975, Aleutian shield ferns were discovered at Adak (Smith 1985, Anderson 1992), and subsequently 3 additional populations have been found there (Talbot et al. 1995a, Talbot and Talbot 2002). Population, as used in this report, is defined as a clustering of individual plants within a discrete area. Following the listing of Aleutian shield fern in 1988, a recovery plan was completed (Anderson 1992). The recovery plan called for developing a management plan to: “expand on protective measures already in place through refuge regulations, such as the prohibition of unauthorized plant collecting on refuge lands … restrictions on access, frequency and timing of population monitoring, and contingency actions to be taken if a catastrophic event occurs (e.g. landslide)” (Anderson 1992, p. 12). This document is the management plan for the Aleutian shield fern on lands managed by Alaska