KRS 146.610: Duties of Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves -- Authority for

administrative regulations -- Criteria for designation of plants as endangered

or threatened -- Plant lists -- Quadrennial report.

(1) The office may conduct investigations, with th e permission of the landowner, on

any species of plants indigenous to the Commonwealth necessary to develop

information relating to population, distribution, habitat needs, limiting factors, and

other biological and ecological data, and to determine protec tive measures and

requirements necessary for its survival.

(2) (a) Any plant species identified as endangered or threatened by the Endangered

Species Act shall be automatically and immediately considered in a similar

category under KRS 146.600 to 146.619. The office may promulgate

administrative regulations, upon recommendation of the office, identifying

any other species of plant within the state as an endangered or threatened

species as a result of any one (1) of the following factors:

1. The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its

habitat or range;

2. Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, educational, or

private purposes;

3. Disease, predation, or vandalism;

4. The inadequacy of existing regulatory mechan isms affecting the

continued existence within the state; or

5. Other factors affecting its continued existence within the state.

(b) The cabinet may, upon recommendation of the office, promulgate

administrative regulations setting forth criteria for identi fying and designating

species of plants native to Kentucky which are in danger of extirpation within

the Commonwealth or threatened with becoming endangered in the

Commonwealth. The cabinet may, upon recommendation of the office,

promulgate administrative regulations that identify species that it determines

to be endangered or threatened. These lists shall identify the common and

scientific names of each species. The lists shall include all plant species native

to Kentucky which are listed as endangered or threatened on the "United

States List of Endangered and Threatened Plants" pursuant to the Endangered

Species Act of 1973, 87 Stat. 884, 16 U.S.C. secs. 1531 -1543, as amended.

The lists may also include species listed in the appendices of the "Convention

on International Trade in Endangered Species," signed March 3, 1973, as Ex.

Doc. H, 93rd Congress, 1st Session. Further, the office may provide for public

education purposes lists of plant species which may become threatened in the

future through habitat loss, commercial exploitation, or other means, or which

are presumed to be extirpated within the Commonwealth. All lists shall be

updated at least every four (4) years.

(3) Locational and population health information relating to endangered or threatened

and other plant species shall be kept in the office's natural heritage database.

Information to be considered when adopting, amending, or rescinding endangered

or threatened plant species lists as required in this section shall be recorded in the

natural heritage database prior to use in determining the status of a plant species.

(4) The office shall present to the Governor and the General Assembly a report on or

before October 1 every four (4) years on the conditions and needs of the

Commonwealth's endangered or threatened plant species.

(5) In carrying out programs authorized by KRS 146.600 to 146.619, the office may

enter into agreements or contracts with federal agencies, other states, agencies or

political subdivisions of the Commonwealth, or with individu als or private

organizations for administration and management of any program established under

KRS 146.600 to 146.619 or utilized for the protection of endangered or threatened

plant species.