{"id":76146,"date":"2025-10-09T17:56:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=76146"},"modified":"2025-10-09T17:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:56:15","slug":"a-hiss-torical-day-governor-newsom-signs-bills-establishing-state-snake-state-shrub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=76146","title":{"rendered":"A hiss-torical day: Governor Newsom signs bills establishing state snake, state shrub"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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What you need to know:<\/strong>\u00a0Today, Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills establishing two new state symbols: the bigberry manzanita as the state shrub and the giant garter snake as the state snake.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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LOS ANGELES \u2013 Governor Gavin Newsom today announced two new state symbols, signing legislation establishing the bigberry manzanita as the state shrub and the giant garter snake as the state snake.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Our state symbols celebrate California’s uniqueness, especially our distinctive ecosystems. California is a global biodiversity hotspot, with both the highest total number of species and the highest number of endemic species in the United States \u2013 including our new state shrub and snake.<\/h4>\n
Governor Gavin Newsom<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Hedging our bets<\/strong><\/h2>\n

AB 581, by Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura),<\/strong>\u00a0designates the bigberry manzanita (Arctostaphylos glauca) as the official state shrub. The bigberry manzanita, a shrub almost exclusively native to California, possesses unique abilities and traits that make it highly adaptable to wildfire-prone land, including rapid regeneration after fire exposure and fire-triggered seed germination. The plant\u2019s extensive root system helps resist soil erosion, yet thrives in dry, nutrient-poor soils \u2013 a useful tool to prevent mud or landslides, especially in wildfire burn scars.<\/p>\n

Snake in the grass? Serpently not.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

SB 765 by Senator Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks)\u00a0<\/strong>establishes the giant garter snake (Thamnophis gigas) as the state snake. The population of the giant garter snake has declined by more than 90% in the last century \u2013 it was listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act in 1971, and the Federal Endangered Species Act in 1993. This species is endemic to California, found only in the Central Valley.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What you need to know:\u00a0Today, Governor...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76147,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76146\/revisions\/76147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}