Forked three-awned grass (Aristida basiramea) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 12
Acknowledgements
Several individuals were most helpful in the preparation of this status report. Mike Oldham graciously provided all data on file and in the Element Occurrence Database for Aristida basiramea at the ONHIC, as well a copy of the draft treatment on Aristida basiramea from the Flora of North America. Mike also verified our A. basiramea collections from Macey Lake, Christian Island, and Anten Mills, and verified or determined plants collected as associates. Tim Tully obtained permission to access the Beausoleil Island First Nation station and the privately owned station at Macey Lake, and also provided the recent history on conservation efforts at Macey Lake. Ms. Jennifer Kopagog, Lands Manager for the Beausoleil Band, Chief Valerie Monague, and Mr. David Bonang are thanked for allowing us to conduct the fieldwork required to help designate this species. Ms. Kopagog is thanked for information provided on the Aristida station at Christian Island, and Darlene Upton, Park Ecologist at Beausoleil Island, is thanked for providing the same information for that station. The discussions with Wasyl Bakowsky about sand barrens were most helpful, as was the information provided on their status. We also thank Bill Fitzgerald, a Geologist based in Simcoe County, for his insights into the relationship between Aristida basiramea and the Algonquin and Nipissing Shorelines that support the species. Linda Chafin, Senior Botanist at the Florida Natural Areas Inventory, and Dr. Bruce Hansen, Curator of the Herbarium at University of South Florida, are thanked for their help in ferreting out the status of the citation for A. basiramea for Florida in the USDA web site. Jason Greenall, Coordinator/Ecologist at the Manitoba Conservation Data Centre, is thanked for his prompt decision to revise the rank for A. basiramea in that province. Permission to use the line drawing of Aristida basiramea from Dr. Robert Mohlenbrock’s 1973 Flora of Illinois was kindly granted by Mona Ross, Permissions Manager at the Southern Illinois University Press.
Fieldwork on the species was a pleasure due to the excellent companionship of Tim Tully (at Macey Lake, Christian Island, and unsuccessful searches east of Awenda), Bob Bowles and Dr. Jim Goltz (at Christian Island), and Mel Crich and John Grootveld (at Anten Mills). As well, Sydney Allen once again served as “Dad’s field assistant”. The report writer greatly appreciates Dr. Goltz going to the effort of investigating good potential habitat on Beausoleil Island from his prior knowledge of sand barrens there, after acquiring the search image for the species two days before on Christian Island. Dr. Goltz provided the station data for Beausoleil Island, as did Mike Oldham from his Rainy River District discovery. Dr. Jacques Brisson is acknowledged for his discovery in 2001 of A. basiramea at Cazaville, Quebec, and Frédéric Coursol is thanked for providing the author with detailed information on this station from his subsequent field visits, for permission to use two of his photographs from the Cazaville station, and for his tolerance in responding to my numerous E-mails about the station. Additional information on the station was provided by Jacques Labrecque, Centre de données sur le patrimoine naturel, Ministère de l’Environnement du Québec.
Paul Jurjans was very helpful in helping with the figures for the report, for generously applying his GIS skills to a couple of mapping issues with the report, and in providing the property, wetland, and ANSI mapping for the Macey Lake station. Dr. Erich Haber was most helpful in coordinating the review of the status report, for revising the Technical Summary to reflect the Cazaville discovery for the November 2002 review by COSEWIC, and in scanning the slides and figures to ensure high quality reproduction. Mike Oldham and an anonymous reviewer are thanked for providing comments on the draft report as part of the COSEWIC process. These were most helpful and contributed substantially to the quality and accuracy of the final report. Finally, we thank Dr. Tony Reznicek for showing us the Macey Lake station of A. basiramea in 1995 and for stimulating my interest in this extremely rare grass. Tony, as always, could not have been more helpful in responding to our queries about the two stations he had discovered, and in providing any data from his field notes or recollections on the populations and supporting habitat. Tony also provided the contact to gain permission for the use of Mohlenbrock’s figure, and suggested potential sites for investigating new stations of A. basiramea.
Funding was provided by the Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada.
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