Creekside Science

Creekside Science has been partnering with Marin County Parks, CDFW, and USFWS on recovery of this endangered annual mint. Stakeholders agreed that due to development within its small historic range in San Mateo County, the thornmint was unlikely to reach recovery goals without venturing outside its historic habitat. Creekside Science was awarded a USFWS Challenge Grant, used to conduct a feasibility study. Over the course of this study, we found multiple potential introduction sites on Ring Mountain. Analyses of soil composition, vegetation associates, and weather patterns indicated a close match with extant habitat farther south on the San Francisco peninsula. After acquiring the appropriate multi-jurisdictional permits, Creekside Science, Marin County Parks, and Yerba Buena Advocacy personnel planted 40,000 seeds among four sites on Ring Mountain in early December 2024. A visit in January 2025 yielded counts of more than 600 plants. Reference plots at Edgewood Preserve, planted the same day, yielded early survivorship counts at about double that rate. Plants at all the sites were very small, however, indicating perhaps that many seeds had yet to germinate. We look forward to additional monitoring, as we continue to assess whether San Mateo thornmint can indeed gain a foothold at this new location.