Taxus brevifolia

Taxus brevifolia occurs in northwestern North America, from northwest California north to southernmost southeast Alaska and east to Montana. It is not uncommon within its main range of distribution, with distribution patterns ranging from scattered to dense patches. Thousands of occurrences are estimated to exist. However, this species is also slow-growing, does not reproduce rapidly, and has a somewhat narrow ecological range. Although it is somewhat resistant to minor disturbances, with harvest it can fairly easily be eliminated from areas. Therefore, logging activity, occurring throughout much of its range, is the most significant current threat to this species. In the past, there was concern that it could be threatened by harvest of its bark for extraction of the anticarcinogen taxol. However, appropriate substitute species and methods for obtaining this drug have been identified, so harvest for this purpose is does not appear to be a significant threat at this time.

Taxus brevifolia is limited to the Pacific Northwest of North America, ranging from northwest California north to southernmost southeast Alaska and east to British Columbia and Montana (Vance et al. 2001).

Overall distribution and abundance threatened by logging activities. Possible harvest of the plant for the anticarcinogen taxol (contained in its bark) was a concern in the past; however, harvest pressure has eased considerably, because ways of synthesizing taxol from the leaves of Eurasian yew trees, mainly Taxus baccata and T. yunnanensis, have been developed. Most taxol supplied today is synthesized this way (Taxolog, Inc. 2001), and collection of wild T. brevifolia for taxol extraction is not believed to pose a significant threat to the species at this time.