the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a new proposal to protect critical habitat for the federally and state-protected Peirson's milk-vetch, as mandated by federal court. The new proposal identifies 16,108 acres of land in the Algodones Dunes as habitat necessary for the survival and recovery of the rare plant, representing a 25-percent reduction from the current critical habitat designation. It further restricts the areas that would be enforced for conservation of the plant, which is found nowhere else in the United States save on a portion of southern California's Algodones Dunes.Located in the Sonoran desert of southeastern California's Imperial County, the scenic and remote Algodones Dunes are the largest dune ecosystem in the United States. The dunes harbor at least 160 different animal and plant species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. http://www.enn.com/net.html?id=2066
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