[njensen]

“I too agree that species lists are extremely important for completeness of surveys. So many times I am asked what the condition of a project is (is it highly disturbed or relatively pristine?), and often an efficient way to demonstrate existing conditions is to present the species richness of a site. Further, all plant community descriptions (most of which are written back in the office) are based on plant assemblages of a project site. How are we supposed to adequately convey habitat descriptions if we do not reference a field list of plant species observed onsite, especially for dominant plants and their specific associate species? These conditions are often scrutinized especially when reviewers are trying to determine if sensitive habitat exists for special-status wildlife species. Finally, if surveys do not require a species list, biologists/botanists are more likely to miss special-status plant species on a particular project site simply because they are just not looking closely enough at the plants onsite.”