the summer drought. Further protection from the rainless summer is a resinous coating on leaves and stems, allowing retention of water until late in the season. These resins often adhere to livestock, and, in the case of facial adherence, lead to a mascara-like effect after dust adheres to the resin in turn. Protection and current status Santa Cruz tarplant had been considered almost extinct by the year 1960. Subsequently, it was listed as a California endangered species and federal threatened species. Colonies are found in the city of Santa Cruz at the Arana Gulch greenbelt and near De La Veaga Golf Course, Twin Lakes, and along Graham Hill Road; in the city of Watsonville in grasslands along Harkins Slough plus a 3.4 acre coastal prairie called Tarplant Hill next to Struve Slough, Spring Hills Golf Course, and on Watsonville Airport property; and in the Elkhorn Slough watershed at the Elkhorn Slough Foundation's Porter Ranch in Monterey County. In the 1980s other colonies were found in the San Francisco Bay Area, including a colony in Pinole, western Contra Costa County. Ex-situ conservation of that colony was used to allow construction of a new shopping center, and a limited number of seeds from that population were moved immediately across and east of Interstate 80 onto the CalTrans right-of-way. Additional seeds from that population were moved onto East Bay Regional Parks property, where most of these introduced populations died. In another touch-and-go experiment, Santa Cruz tarplant has been shown to barely survive at the Arana Gulch colony in Santa Cruz, mostly due to lack of appropriate management, habitat fragmentation, and competition with non-native species. Active restoration experiments began in 2007 at Tarplant Hill in Watsonville by the owners, with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners in Restoration Program. Populations protected as critical habitat In 2002, the US Fish and Wildlife Service published the final designation of Critical Habitat for the species, as follows: UNIT A - Mezue (Contra Costa County, Wildcat Canyon Regional Park) - County/City ownership. UNIT B - Graham Hill - Private ownership. UNIT C - De Laveaga - State ownership. UNIT D - Arana Gulch - County/City ownership. UNIT E - Twin Lakes - State ownership. UNIT F - Rodeo Gulch - Private ownership. UNIT G - Soquel - Private and County/City ownership. UNIT H - Porter Gulch - Private ownership. UNIT I - Watsonville - State,