Native Plant Salvaging and Reuse in Southwestern Deserts - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 398

These trends in rapidly growing urban areas in the Southwest have had a heavy impact
on the native plant communities. To accommodate growth, large expanses of desert scrub
were converted to farmland first along the edge of the urbanized areas and then replaced
by urban housing and industrial development. Land uses replacing the natural desert
setting during this period had no connection with the native plant communities, often
appearing like landscapes typical of the Midwest or Northeast. Furthermore, migration of
people from other areas often encouraged the creation of a more exotic landscape from the
professionals involved in developing new subdivisions and commercial centers.
During this time, large expanses of colored rock over black plastic with a few cacti
and boulders were often considered a “desert landscape.” However, a growing movement
of people who understood or appreciated the desert environment began to rethink the
exotic landscape as one that best represents the vision for the replacement of the natural
environment. Over time, through education and outreach, the concern for incorporating
some of the native desert plants back into the landscape through design and regulation
has taken hold throughout the region. This article discusses some of the developments in
striking a balance between respecting the nature of the desert and developing with land
restoration practices.
The availability of native plants for desert landscapes was relatively scarce until the foun-
dation of native plant nurseries, such as Mountain States Nursery in Glendale, AZ, Sierra
Valley Farms in Beckwourth, CA, and Bernardo Beach Native Plant Farm, Albuquerque,
NM. The effort to generate desert plants and educate the public had begun through these
efforts, but there was a parallel need to develop horticultural techniques to remove, pro-
tect, and restore emblematic desert trees and cacti prior to site development. Such efforts
have elevated the landscape aesthetics of these species by providing larger, unique speci-
mens of several native plants of the Southwest.
23.1.1 Early Days of Tree Salvaging Practices in Arizona
In 1979, a mechanical design engineer named Phil Hebets, quit his job at Garrett
Corporation (now Honeywell), and started Sonoran Desert Designs, a design-build
landscape company. Phil's innovative concepts included the liberal use of native trees
and shrubs, not just cacti. At the time mature trees were unavailable in nurseries and
Phil challenged a friend, Don Fedock, to salvage a mature blue palo verde ( Parkinsonia
florida). ). Fedock developed a specialized boxing process and the tree salvage industry
was born. The technique was taught to Maurice Bosc of Sonoran Desert Designs, who
made great strides in large tree boxing and moving technology. Subsequently, Phil and
Al Dunstan founded Desierto Verde as a native plant nursery to complement and oversee
the salvage operation.
In 1983, Don Fedock collaborated with Steven Carothers of SWCA environmental
consultants on salvaging efforts for the Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson. About 400
trees were salvaged by Fedock to complement the 300 saguaros and hundreds of smaller
cacti salvaged by SWCA. The result was a successful revegetation effort, replacing the mix
of plants that existed prior to construction. The same boxing process used for the lower
desert plants also proved to be successful for oak trees and other higher elevation species.
In 1985, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson contracted with Desierto Verde
to move a variety of mature plants for the Mountain Habitat exhibit being constructed.
The museum decided they wanted the exhibit to look like a finished product the day it
opened. Over 100 trees were moved including two 25-ft-wide Arizona white oaks ( Quercus
arizonica ); other species salvaged included emory and silverleaf oaks ( Quercus emoryi