Polemonium vanbruntiaeis designated as threatened in Canada and will thus be protected under the federal Species at Risk Act. In Quebec, pursuant to the provincial Threatened or Vulnerable SpeciesAct (R.S.Q., c. E-12.01), the species may not be harvested, destroyed or possessed outside of its natural environment, and stiff fines can be imposed (Couillard, 1998).
At the international level, the species is not listed or designated in the IUCN Red Book, nor under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), nor under the United States Endangered Species Act.
No international agreements have been signed with respect to Van Brunt’s Jacob’s-ladder.
The most recent status ranks for the species (Nature Serve, 2001) are as follows:
Global status: G3
National status:
United States of America: N3
Canada: N1
Subnational status:
United States of America: Maine (S1), Maryland (S2), New Jersey (SX), New York (S3), Pennsylvania (S1), Vermont (S2), West Virginia (S2); the species has been designated as threatened in Vermont (Thompson,1989) and endangered in Maine (Magee and Ahles, 1999)
Canada: New Brunswick (SH), Quebec (S1)
The species was designated as threatened in Canada, in 1994, by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC, 2000), and as threatened in Quebec, in 1998, by the Government of Quebec (gouvernement du Québec, 1998).
In Canada and in Quebec, there are no protected public areas where the species is found. The Société de conservation des milieux humides du Québec (SCMHQ), a private agency, recently purchased the northern part of the Développement-Boisvert-Est location, which is home to Quebec’s largest Polemonium vanbruntiae population (Alain Gouge, verbatim, October 16, 2001).
