Dozens of saguaro cactuses have died after being relocated to make room for the U.S.-Mexico border wall proposed under former president Donald Trump, and the plants’ failing health is sparking concern from environmental advocates.
More than 100 saguaros growing near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona were dug up and moved in 2019 to pave the way for infrastructure related to the border wall, Fronteras, a news site related to KJZZ radio, reported. The cactuses were relocated but didn’t take well to the shock, and many of them died. The experience has some experts advocating for efforts to preserve saguaros in place rather than planning to restore the ecosystems after they’re moved.
Since learning of the saguaros’ failing health, several environmental groups have asked President Joe Biden to put more effort into the local ecosystem, such as dedicating border wall funding toward habitat restoration, Fronteras reported, although it’s unclear how much the restoration will cost.
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Biden previously said he attempted to redirect funding for the wall, which had been appropriated in 2019 before he took office, but Congress refused.
The relocation efforts have since become dire for dozens of saguaro cactuses.
“Larger saguaros do not take well to being dug up and relocated, unless an extensive part of the root system is also carefully excavated,” University of Arizona postdoctoral Plant Ecology Researcher Peter Breslin told Newsweek. “Saguaros also have to be oriented the same when they are replanted, so the north- and south-facing parts of the plant are positioned that way when they are relocated. If the north-facing side of the saguaro is planted facing south, the plant will scorch and often die, due to increased UV and heat.”
Saguaros are an important plant for the ecosystem, providing shelter for birds and also producing fruit. The cactuses are considered sacred by local Indigenous populations.
Breslin said he suspects that the saguaros likely were not oriented properly during their relocation and had few roots or didn’t receive enough rain to thrive. He said that transplanting large, established, slow-growing plants “is a precarious effort,” even when done correctly. The region also is battling a years-long drought, which doesn’t improve the plants’ odds after being transplanted.
“We went out to look at some of these saguaros maybe six months after they’d been transplanted, and already many of them were standing dead,” Laiken Jordahl, southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity said, according to the Fronteras report. “The vast majority of saguaros that were transplanted were already doomed to die the moment that they were moved from the places where they had been growing—in many cases for over a century.”
The plants’ odds worsened when in January 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense canceled border plant salvation projects, according to the Fronteras report. As they no longer received care from biological staff, the cactuses had an even tougher path to survival.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.