State Buying Land To Protect Flower
The State Forestry Division is buying 116 acres of the Blue Hole Cienega, a wetland near Santa Rosa, to protect habitat for the rare Pecos sunflower.
The area has one of the few remaining large stands of the sunflower, which is listed as an endangered plant by the state and as threatened by the federal government.
The purchase — paid for with $75,000 each from a federal grant and state Department of Transportation money used to mitigate highway impacts — marks the first time the state has bought land to protect an endangered plant.