Often the news about imperiled wildlife is discouraging, but
occasionally there's a success to report. The latest good news:
a rare plant has been removed from the U.S. Endangered Species
List. The Robbins' cinquefoil (left), a small, yellow-flowered
perennial, is found only in the upper reaches of the White
Mountains of New Hampshire. Less than 4,000 of the plants
remained before the species was listed as endangered in 1980,
and its main population was threatened by plant collectors and
hikers on the nearby Appalachian Trail. In 1983, government
officials and representatives from the Appalachian Mountain Club
rerouted the trail away from the plant's habitat. Later, with
help from the New England Wild Flower Society, biologists
created two additional populations of the cinquefoil in other
locations in the White Mountain National Forest. Today, more
than 14,000 Robbins' cinquefoils grow in the White Mountains,
and the species was officially de-listed in late August. "The
successful, dramatic recovery of Robbin