He scoured Utah for plants once thought to be extinct. Now, they’re taking root again.

The native slough sedge was functionally extinct in Utah when Blake Wellard found a tiny patch of the tall, green wetland plant along a stretch of the Weber River in Coalville.The sedge had hung on next to what is now the Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail thanks, in part, to the rumbling trains of the past that had blocked cows and other disturbances from accessing its habitat.Now, Wellard has planted enough of the stately sedge that it can pollinate itself in a swampy portion of a small, human-