Feds Propose Endangered Status For Rare SF Plant

A rediscovered San Francisco plant once thought to be extinct may be added to the federal government’s list of endangered species.


The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on Thursday will propose the Franciscan manzanita — which was last seen in San Francisco in 1947 — be covered under the Endangered Species Act.
In 2009 a botanist driving over the Golden Gate Bridge spotted the flowering shrub in an area that had been cleared for a road project.
The plant was saved, but environmental groups sued to get it protected. Fish & Wildlife’s decision will now keep the case out of court.
Brent Plater of the Wild Equity Institute, one of the plaintiffs, says with federal protection the plant will again become a part of the city’s biological community.