Over the past ten years many plants have been slowly becoming extinct. In a recent study of Middlesex Fells, botanists looked to see how many species have survived after a century. Botanists surveyed the park in 1894 and found 422 different plant species. Less than a century later, only three hundred of the species survived. Due to this type of problem, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was passed in 1973. This act is designed to protect threatened and endangered plants and animals. This act prohibits unauthorized taking, possessing, carrying of endangered species, and offers a payment or reward to anyone who can give them leads to an arrest or conviction of some crime. ESA has grants available to each of the fifty states to help aid their wildlife. The money that is used for grants comes from the water and land conservation funds. These funds entitle authorities to take land for endangered species so that they and their habitat can be protected.

 

 

 

 

Sarracenia flava is a plant commonly known as the pitcher plant. The pitcher plant was found near bogs and wetlands all throughout Maryland and Virginia. It is now considered endangered since so many bogs and wetlands are being lost to drainage.

 

 

Abutilon menziesii is commonly called the flowering maple. This flower is native to Hawaii, and has been an U.S. conservation concern for the past few years since it has been quietly dying out.

Lectoris fernandeziana is found in the Juan Fernandez Islands, a remote Pacific island off of the Coast of Chile. One thousand actual plants are still alive, and relatives of Lectoris fernandeziana species have been slowly diminishing. If trends occur 2/3 of the 300,000 different species will disappear.