Rare plants thrive at Livermore Lab test site

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 28, 2008 | by Betsy Mason

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Site 300 is home to high- explosives testing, shock physics experiments, hydrodynamic science - - and poppies.

The 7,000-acre site in the hilly grasslands between Livermore and Tracy has been an unlikely haven for rare and endangered species since it was established in 1955 as a non-nuclear explosives testing facility to support the lab's nuclear weapons mission.

This year, Site 300 has seen an explosion of the rare California diamond-petaled poppy, a small yellow bloom that was once thought to be extinct.

It was rediscovered in 1992 in San Luis Obispo County but hasn't been seen there in recent years.

"The only place it's been in the last few years that we know of is Site 300," said lab ecologist Lisa Paterson.

In an average year, Paterson estimates there are fewer than 1,000 poppies on the site. But this year, the number was closer to 10,000.

She's not sure what caused the poppy boom this year, though she suspects it could be the steady, even rainfall.

"We haven't found out what that plant needs," she said.

That's one of the things Paterson hopes to find out from the plants at Site 300. The lab has

had a program since 1993 to monitor rare and endangered species in hopes of protecting them and learning more about them.

Another rare, and somewhat more charismatic, flower at Site 300 is the large-flowered fiddleneck, named for its bloom that curls at the end like the neck of a fiddle.

The bright orange flower, found only at Site 300 and a private ranch nearby, has been so scarce lately that the lab has established a seed bank as a back-

up if the natural population crashes. The seed bank is also used to grow plants for research, so wildflowers are left undisturbed.

"We have a research program that is designed to find out why they are so rare and how to best manage them," Paterson said.

Also under Paterson's watch-

ful eye is the round-leaved filaree, a little plant with white flowers and seeds with little spirals at the end to help them burrow into the soil, as well as a stinky plant that blooms for one day in the fall called the big tarplant.

The lab spends $30,000 to $80,000 a year monitoring and studying the plants.

"We think they're special because they're rare," Paterson said. "We think they are worth protecting."

An explosives testing range might not seem like an obvious refuge for endangered species, but because it has been fenced off from the rest of the world for more than six decades, plants have been protected from disturbance.

Site 300 hasn't been grazed, for example, and the lab maintains a prescribed burn program to protect the area from wildfires. Much of the acreage is unused and undisturbed.

"We try to avoid the plants, but for the most part they are in remote areas away from the programmatic activities," Paterson said.

Also seemingly undaunted by the classified work at the site are several rare or endangered animals including the California red- legged frog, the California tiger salamander, the Alameda whipsnake and the valley elderberry longhorn beetle.