Mountain holly fern (Polystichum scopulinum) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 10

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Existing Protection or Other Status Designations

International Status

Polystichum scopulinum is not covered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Endangered Species Act (USA) or the IUCN Red Data Book. NatureServe has designated a global rank of "G5" for the species, a ranking that indicates that, on a global scale, it is considered to be "common to very common; demonstrably secure and essentially ineradicable under present conditions" (NatureServe 2002).

National and provincial status

The British Columbia Conservation Data Centre has ranked this species as S1 and placed it on the British Columbia Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management red list (Douglas et al. 2002b). This is the most critical category for imperiled rare native vascular plants in the province. In Quebec, it is also ranked S1 by the Centre de données sur le patrimoine naturel, Ministère de l'Environnement du Québec. A rank of S1 is considered “critically imperiled because of extreme rarity (5 or fewer occurrences or very few remaining individuals) or because of some factors making it especially vulnerable to extirpation or extinction". It is also listed as threatened under the Quebec Act respecting threatened or vulnerable species. NatureServe ranks this species as a historic record (SH) in Newfoundland. The national ranking is N1. The species is ranked as “May Be At Risk” in BC, QC and NL (Wild Species 2000, web site).

British Columbia does not have specific legislation in place for the protection of vascular plants at risk; thus Polystichum scopulinum remains unprotected. At the federal level the Species at Risk Act will protect listed plants only on Federal lands. The federal minister, however, can recommend a federal Cabinet Order that would provide for protection of COSEWIC species on provincial lands if the laws of the province do not effectively protect the species or the residences (or critical habitats) of its individuals. The habitat of the species in Quebec is located in a provincial park (le Parc de la Gaspésie), and is legally protected. See the provincial government publication by Lavoie et al. (1994) for additional details on this plant.