These public lands are habitat for many of the rare plants included in this Inventory. An additional 177 special status plants are suspected to occur on BLM lands, but their presence has not yet been documented. Sensitive species are those species that do not meet any of the first three criteria, but which are designated by the State Director for special management consideration.
Sensitive plants receive the same level of protection as Federal candidate species.
California's policy on the management of candidate and sensitive plants predates the national policy and is generally more restrictive. California's policy was first developed in 1977 in recognition of the fact that many candidate and sensitive plants require the same level of conservation as Federally-listed plants. The policy is to conserve and recover listed species and to manage the habitats of candidate and sensitive species to ensure that BLM actions do not contribute to the need to list any of these species. In California, the BLM is continuing to pursue the eight-point program outlined in previous edition of this Inventory. Significant advances have been made in all of these areas.