The historic range of the San Quintín kangaroo rat (Dipodomys gravipes), once thought extinct but rediscovered in 2017, is restricted to a strip less than 170 km long and a few km wide within the coastal plains around San Quintín, Baja California. This rodent was first described in 1925 by Laurence M. Huey, who described the habitat in this area as hard soils covered with grasses. Similarly, Edward W. Nelson (1922) reported that “the vegetation is so low and insignificant that the plain has the appearance of an open prairie.” The habitat was recovering from years of wheat cultivation beginning in 1891, abandoned in 1917. The San Quintín kangaroo rat thrives in disturbed habitat left after the fallowing of fields. With the construction of the transpeninsular highway, agriculture was renewed in 1971 and by the early 2000s had expanded over much of the plain, but then it stalled because of saltwater intrusion into the aquifer. Desalinization plants have been introduced into the region, allowing the once fallow fields to be cultivated yet again. Dipodomys gravipes is listed as endangered by the Mexican government, and the renewed threat of expanding agriculture illuminates the need for targeted conservation. Many other narrow endemic taxa of flora and fauna share the San Quintín kangaroo rat’s range, highlighting the desirability of a multispecies approach to conservation of the region’s wildlife.