Earlier this month, the property neighboring the Lacamas Heritage Trailhead was tilled and planted with clover. Some botanists worry it has wiped out most of Washington’s remaining Bradshaw’s lomatium plants, although the property owners disagree. (Shari Phiel/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
CAMAS — In just a few hours earlier this month, nearly the entire remaining population of Bradshaw’s lomatium, an extremely rare native perennial plant species also known as desert parsley, was wiped out after a 20-acre parcel of private property was tilled by the owners. At least that’s the claim made by area botanists and the state Department of Natural Resources.
Amateur botanist Kieran Hanrahan of the Native Plant Society of Oregon notified The Columbian after seeing the work on the property. He said the loss of such an important habitat for the plants was distressing.
“It was something like 75 percent of the population (of Bradshaw’s lomatium) anywhere in the world,” he said.
Matt Olson of Robertson & Olson Construction, which owns the property and neighboring Camas Meadows golf course, said the company worked with environmental specialists to ensure the plants wouldn’t be harmed.
“My professionals are telling me just the opposite. This is not harmful to the plant. … We have stands that were not touched at all,” Olson said.
Olson said a cover crop of clover was planted on the property to prevent the growth of noxious and invasive weeds. He said the planting was also done to reduce the risk of fires.
“We had a fire out there, across the road. We’ve done the mowing and haying throughout the years, but it was recommended that we put something different in there,” Olson said.
He also said he was surprised to hear there were concerns about the recent planting.
“We were proactive. We did not go out there and just allow the farmer to do this. This was a strategic plan,” Olson said.
The property sits adjacent to the Lacamas Heritage Trailhead on Northeast Goodwin Road and is one of two properties that provide habitat for Bradshaw’s lomatium in Washington. The other site is about a mile north in the Lacamas Prairie area and is owned by the state Department of Natural Resources. The state agency previously tried to purchase the property in hopes of preserving the habitat but was unsuccessful, a DNR spokesman said.
Olson said his company was approached in 2006 about a possible sale and made aware of the existing then-endangered species on the site.
“We recommended to them that they should be in a stewardship of that property. They basically conveyed to us that they had specialty funding to purchase the property,” he said.
The deal fell through when the state’s appraisal came in well below what was expected. According to county property records, the assessed value of the entire 77-acre parcel that includes part of the golf course is about $4.4 million.
“It’s like being asked to sell your house for $20. At that point, we said it’s not reasonable,” Olson said. “Since then, I’ve let them access the property. They’ve harvested hundreds of pounds of Bradshaw’s lomatium seed.”
Olson said there are no immediate plans to develop the property, which is zoned for light industrial or business park use.
“I think it’s pretty obvious we’ve been a big part of getting the plant off of the endangered species list,” Olson said.
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Walter Fertig, a conservation botanist at Washington State University who is familiar with the Camas sites, said he saw recent video of the site and was worried about the possible loss.
“We’ve been to that site on several occasions. The golf course population is part of a larger population that extends across the road onto some DNR property,” Fertig said. “That’s an important site that has quite a few rare species, including the Bradshaw’s lomatium.”
Fertig previously worked for the state Department of Natural Resources’ Natural Heritage Program. He said a 2022 count on the property put the population at about 3 million plants. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted the count after Bradshaw’s lomatium was removed from the federal list of endangered and threatened plant species.
“The existence and apparent security of this population was a major reason the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave for removing Bradshaw’s lomatium from the federal endangered species list in 2021,” Hanrahan said.
The plant was once an important food source for native populations living in the region, he said. While he doesn’t know if the Camas site specifically was used as a food source, he said it wouldn’t surprise him if it was.
Recently, though, population numbers for the two properties have been in decline, most likely due to increased development in the area that has led to drier habitat, Fertig said.
Bradshaw’s lomatium typically grows in low elevations along rivers or in prairies that regularly flood during the winter and spring months. The species was thought to be extinct until 1979, when it was rediscovered by a University of Oregon graduate. The Camas population, Fertig said, was discovered in 1994.
“There’s a five-year window when the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) Service delists plants, they do post-delisting monitoring. They go in every year or every other year and revisit the known sites … to see how the population is doing,” Fertig said. “In theory, they could relist the plant.”
Whether the Camas population can recover remains to be seen. Fertig said it’s possible that some of the plants may bounce back.
“It’s a perennial. It has a very large tap root,” he said. “Some of those plants probably could survive. We won’t know until they flower next spring. It certainly won’t be as abundant as it used to be.”
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