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Utah Scientists Get Dirty To Save Threatened Cactus

Southern Utah botanists have been working to transplant rare Siler pincushion cacti ahead of planned new development in near fast-growing St. George. 

The Spectrum reports the species was listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as endangered in 1979 and improved to threatened status as of 1993. But recent spates of drought and development in southern Utah have created difficult conditions for the plant that only grows in southern Utah and northern Arizona. It cannot be cultivated in a nursery or grown from seed in a lab.