Researcher finds higher death rates for moved saguaros
2 May 1999
By Tony Davis

Some of the saguaros along Raven Golf Course at Sabino Springs leaned left or right.  Some were shells, their green skins vanished.  A brownish liquid oozed from other saguaros.  Some were discolored by brown blotches.  Some felt mushy, with a squishy-soft consistency.  A few had fallen.  These were dead, dying or ailing specters of the plant that symbolizes Arizona.

According to a pioneering study, these and other transplanted saguaros at the luxury Sabino Springs housing and golf development are dying much faster than those that weren't moved.  According to the study's scientists, the Sabino Springs experience raises questions about the practice of moving saguaros - particularly large ones - out of the way of new streets, homes and offices.  The scientists also question the effectiveness of local laws that encourage or require such transplants to save cacti from bulldozers.

"Our native plant preservation ordinances are feel-good,"  said biological consultant Lisa Harris, who conducted the study with University of Arizona help.  "They want to save saguaros, and they transplant them.  But does it help the saguaros?  Is the higher mortality rate acceptable to the community?"

[...]

At Sabino Springs, near Harrison and Snyder roads, Harris has monitored 800 transplanted saguaros and 200 non-transplants for four years.  The difference in mortality rates between transplanted and non- transplanted cacti was particularly high - 28 percent - for larger saguaros, she said.  Harris, who holds graduate degrees in business administration and renewable resources, has worked as a consultant for the city of Tucson, the county and numerous large developers.

[...]

[...] Mark Dimmitt, natural history director of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, said after transplanting cacti for 10 years, he recommends not moving saguaro taller than 15 feet. "I've seen really good success up to 12 feet, but it seems that when they reach maturity something happens and they lose their vigor," Dimmitt said.  "If a young person breaks a bone, he or she is fine in a few months.  If someone 80 or 90 breaks a bone, it may never heal because they are not as resilient as younger persons.  It's the same with saguaros."

And a UA saguaro expert said the study's results probably show that if you want saguaros to survive, you should leave them alone.  Betsy Pierson, an assistant plant pathology professor, helped design the research methods for Harris' study and analyze its results.  "If they want to move 100 to save 25 saguaros, they can go for it," said Pierson, who recently published a landmark research paper on saguaros in the Tucson area.  "But a better way might be to leave 25 in place, and be done with it."  Typically, saguaros live 125 to 150 years.  Some live 200 years.  To see large numbers of middle-aged saguaros die, such as many of the Sabino Springs casualties, makes it clear transplanting is to blame, she said.

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Pierson said the researchers think more Sabino Springs saguaros are technically dead but aren't showing it yet.   "A lot of saguaros on the golf course, when we push them, they are squishy like grabbing a roll of toilet paper," she said.  "They are surviving only on stored water and not replacing it.  Over the next couple of years we'll see more of these saguaros fall over or start to rot."

Transplant stats:

Sabino Springs
• 800 - Number of saguaros that were transplanted four years ago at the Sabino Springs development.
• 131 - Number that died since transplanting.

Raven Golf Course
• 100 - Number of saguaros being studied in their original homes, lining the Raven Golf Course.
• 9 - Number that died naturally.

Coronado National Forest
• 100 - Number of saguaros being studied in their native habitat in the Coronado National Forest north of Sabino Springs.
• 1 - Number that died naturally.

* Contact Tony Davis at 807-7790 or [email protected].