Rescue Mission: Volunteers Safeguard Venus Flytraps

Volunteers in Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina, are working to remove Venus flytraps from roadside ditches and replant them in safer areas away from impending utility construction. Development and lack of burning have led to a decline in the population of these rare carnivorous plants, which only occur naturally within a 75-mile radius around Wilmington. Efforts to protect the flytraps' habitat have prompted the city to take over managing street-side mowing, and now volunteers are working to relocate the plants to city-owned land. Despite their dwindling habitat, Venus flytraps lack threatened and endangered species protections.