The Arizona Department of Transportation continues to relocate a rare and endangered species of cactus growing near the Pinto Creek bridge replacement project along U.S. 60 near Globe-Miami; a project now expected to wrap up 2022.

[Above photo by the Arizona DOT]

Initiated in 2018, this relocation effort is the latest step in a long-term partnership between the Arizona DOT and the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix to protect hedgehog cactuses that only grow in one tiny area of the state.

The rescue effort required botanists to rappel into the canyon, carefully dig up, cover, and transport the plants to the botanical garden’s complex in Phoenix. There, the botanists will care for the cactuses and breed them so there are more of them when relocated to the Pinto Creek Bridge site in a few years.