Conservationists are skeptical of a company growing endangered Tiehm’s buckwheat to help it survive mining effects

Conservationists contend that mining would eradicate the plant from its current habitat and that the efforts to transplant the greenhouse-grown specimens to reclaimed mined areas are unproven.

A botanist gently strokes the pollen of endangered wildflowers with a paintbrush as she tries to reenact nature inside a small greenhouse in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada.