Here’s a good reason for visitors to the Middlesex Fells—human and canine—not to go around trampling vegetation off-trail: the Boston Globe reports that 105 species of plants that were thought to be locally extinct have been found by meticulous volunteer botanists. Mind you, it took volunteers 2,000 hours to find them, but they’re there.

So the next time you’re tempted to let Fluffy run off-leash—as 77% of dog owners visiting the Fells did in 2010-2011—think about these words: boneset; swamp candles; winterberry. When you call Fluffy and go home, they’ll still be there in the fells, waiting to show their blooms… if Fluffy hasn’t dug them up.

Let’s let the swamp candles live. Keep Fluffy on the trails.

Swamp Candles/ Lysimachia terrestris–Wikimedia Commons