DOC's work with coastal cress
Lepidium flexicaule at Dolmite Point on
the West Coast
Six indigenous coastal species of Lepidium and Rorippa cress are currently threatened with extinction. The Department of Conservation Coastal Cresses Recovery Plan seeks to address this decline.
With management there is likely to be an improvement in the condition of existing populations. In the medium to long-term there is likely to be an increase in the total number of populations.
Without management, extinction of one or more coastal cresses is highly likely.
A Department of Conservation Coastal Cresses Recovery Plan was approved in 1998. This plan sets in place a series of steps that will promote the recovery of coastal cresses. It also outlines different management options, and a work plan.
The long-term vision of this plan is:
"To ensure that viable populations of all extant coastal cress species are restored and self-sustaining in the wild throughout the natural range of these species."
This goal will be realised when the threat status and the Department of Conservation priority status of each species has been improved by at least one category within 50 years.