Blue-grey taildropper slug (Prophysaon coeruleum) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 12

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Existing Protection or Other Status Designations

Prophysaon coeruleum is on the provincial Red List of species at risk (BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer 2005). Species on the Red List include species that are extirpated, endangered, or threatened in British Columbia. The species is considered “critically imperiled” (S1) in British Columbia.

Invertebrates designated by COSEWIC as Threatened, Endangered or Extirpated will be able to be protected through the British Columbia Wildlife Act and Wildlife Amendment Act 2004 once the regulations listing these species are completed. The British Columbia Park Act protects invertebrates at risk in provincial parks and protected areas (when species are known to reside in the protected area), and provisions for management are incorporated into the park master plan. Invertebrates provincially listed as vulnerable, threatened or endangered and negatively impacted by forest and range practices can be included in the category ‘species at risk’ under the British Columbia Forest and Range Practices Act. Once included in this category, there is the mechanism for establishing Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHA) and associated General Wildlife Measures (GWM) to protect invertebrates from the impacts from forest and range activities. The implementation of WHAs and GWMs is addressed through the Identified Wildlife Management Strategy. While P. coeruleum is not currently listed under these strategies, it could become a candidate for inclusion in a future version of the provincial Identified Wildlife Management Strategy as this species could potentially be adversely affected by forest practices.

In the United States, P. coeruleum is relatively widespread and abundant in southwestern Oregon, but it appears to be rare elsewhere within its range based on a scattered distribution pattern and low number of locality records (Cordeiro 2002a, b, c). NatureServe (2005) lists the species as “apparently secure” both globally (G4) and nationally in the United States (N4) and “vulnerable to extirpation or extinction” in Canada (N3). Populations in Oregon are listed as “vulnerable to extirpation or extinction” (S3); no other sub-national ratings for the United States are available from NatureServe (as of April 2005).

In the United States, P. coeruleum was designated as a “survey and manage” species under the Northwest Forest Plan, which governs the management of forested federal lands from northern California to Washington State. The “survey and manage” program is presently under revision and in a state of flux (BLM & US Forest Service 2004; N. Duncan, pers. comm.). Many of the “survey and manage” species are retained on the list of sensitive species as a part of the Special Status Species Program of the Northwest Forest Plan (BLM & US Forest Service 2004). This species is in the regional forester’s sensitive animal list in Washington State (http://www.or.blm.gov/isssp/USFS/20040721/Enc2_RF_Sensitive_Animal_List_SandM_0704.xls).