Editing Eastern Prickly Pear (section)

==== Possibility of Human Introduction ====

Research into the history of Short Beach Park reveals that, as late as the early 1970s, there were numerous cottages there and the northeastern section of the park was being used as a town dump of sorts.<ref name="lordship-history">"Short Beach and Half Moon Cove 1946 to Present." ''The History of Lordship''. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://www.lordshiphistory.com/ShortBeach2webpage.html>.</ref>  The last of the cottages were demolished in 1972 after the town emerged as the victor of a 15-year debate over whether the cottagers or the town held ownership over the land.  At some point afterwards, between 1972 and 1973, Short Beach was developed as a town park.

Given these findings, there is some measure of question as to whether or not the ''O. humifusa'' that can be seen today at Short Beach were introduced by the park designers.  On one hand, these cacti are on ideal habitat and would seem to be natural in origin.  On the other hand, it is entirely possible that this habitat area did not exist prior to park development.

At this point, I do not possess enough information to make any conclusions in this regard.