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The San Bernardino Mountains are an area of great bio diversity, representing the southern end of the range for many species and the northern range for others. This page gives information about some of the rare or endangered species in our area. It will change regularly.
Our Amazing Mountains
The San Bernardino Mountains and our Valley is one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet! The San Bernardino Mountains support over 1/3 of all the flora species of California in less than 1% of the area. In addition, these mountains support 1/10th of the flora species of North America all the way from the Mexican border to the North Pole, including Greenland.
There are between 1600 and 1700 plant species in our mountains. In Big Bear Valley, 22 of our plant species are endemic, meaning they exist here and nowhere else in the world. Twelve of those species are listed under the Endangered Species Act—so, they are local, rare and in trouble. We also have three rare habitats—pebble-plain habitat, carbonate habitat and montane meadow habitat. Pebble-plain habitat exists only here and though the other two rare habitats in our mountains exist elsewhere, ours support several endemic plant species. What a treasure we have right before our eyes!
What is a Pebble Plain Habitat?
“Pebble plains are rich and interesting habitats unique to the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and are insular at a much smaller scale. These habitats have a patchy distribution across the eastern San Bernardino Mountains consisting of edaphic openings in montane coniferous forest and pinyon-juniper woodlands. The extraordinary small-scale diversity of the pebble plains, the rarity of many of their component species, and daunting levels of human impacts result in major challenges for conservation and management,” states Scott Eliason, Mountaintop District Botanist, San Bernardino National Forest.
The Big Bear Valley General Plan refers to the rarity of pebble plains in the San Bernardino Mountains and more particularly the Big Bear Valley. City of Big Bear Lake - General Plan
The proposed Hilton Hotel project has references to the rare occurrence of pebble plains in the valley. Center for Biological Diversity - Press Release
What are some of the endangered plant species?
Ash-grey Indian Paintbrush is an endangered species found in the pebble plain areas near the Holcomb Valley and areas along the north shore of Big Bear Lake.
The Bird-foot Checkerbloom is an endangered wetlands plant found on the proposed site of the Hilton Hotel. The picture of the Bird-foot Checkerbloom shows a delicate purple bloom. | 
