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From the Director
"Restoring San Francisco's Lost Manzanita"
"I look at remaining natural habitats as the original skin of the Earth," says Curator Don Mahoney. "And there's very little of that left in San Francisco." Indeed, there is less and less of that original skin throughout the planet, and that is why the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society works diligently to assure that when even tiny fragments of the original skin are found they can be preserved, propagated and "released back into the wild". I highly recommend that you read the article and watch the video developed by KQED that tells the story of the Arctostaphylos franciscana, or Franciscan manzanita, once thought to be extinct in the wild. This last-of-its-species local California native was found in October 2009 when a botanist on his way home from work spotted a low-lying, 18-foot-long shrub at a construction site. The plant was a miracle of survival – a species thought to have been extinct in the wild for almost 70 years. It was suddenly visible after most of the other plant material around it had been removed in preparation for constructing a multi-billion dollar improvement to Doyle Drive at the southern approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. “No one thought to look in the middle of a center divider of a freeway. But there it was," said Don. "I doubt if there's another one ever going to be found.”
Don was asked to advise on taking cuttings and moving the rather large specimen to an as yet undisclosed location where the plant is now flourishing – away from huge construction equipment. Seeds and cuttings were distributed to a number of Bay Area botanical gardens. Those in our Garden are doing quite well and will be ready to plant in the Garden or, eventually, in the wild. Surveys are under way to find candidate sites for these successful young seedlings. It is a tribute to mankind's growing awareness of the vital importance of not only sustaining the web of life but also returning the world we live in to a reasonable level of ecological health. This story will need to be replicated many times over, but each such experience moves us closer to being reunited with the core of the vitality that sustains us all. Warm best regards,
Michael McKechnie
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Executive Director Michael McKechnie