Alva Review-Courier -

ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — Blake Wellard holds a middle-aged cactus in his hand, its long tendrilous roots dangling a foot and a half below the clod of desert dirt in which they are, purposefully, still enmeshed. The freelance botanist, as Wellard calls himself, knows that having these delicate and desiccated roots intact will be the key to this threatened Siler pincushion cactus's survival in its new home, just a few miles down the road at the White Dome Nature Preserve south of St. George.

Fewer than ten thousand individuals remain worldwide of the Siler pincushion cactus, according to a 2006 s...