Move-a-Bush: $205,000
You’re in the wrong business. You could be living in California, cashing in on the following.
A plant that you can buy for $16 is listed by the California bureaucracy as being extinct. This created a problem for a highway construction project that was blocked by one of these extinct plants. It had to be moved. Safely.
It was a joint effort among the California Department of Transportation, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the California Department of Fish and Game.
Getting representatives together, the committee decided to move the plant to the Presidio in San Francisco.
But they could not impose costs on the Presidio. So, they gave the Presidio about $80,000 to water it for the next ten years.
Then it had to be moved. That cost another $100,000.
Then there are reporting requirements. You know: paperwork. Digital, of course. Cost: $25,000. That was funded by Caltrans.
Three botanical gardens got $5,000 each to care for it.
Now it may go national. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed naming it to the endangered species list.
You think we don’t live in la-la land?
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Posted on April 20, 2012. The original is here.