Native Plant Salvaging and Reuse in Southwestern Deserts - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 404

landscapes. For example, laws designed to protect saguaro ( Carnegiea gigantea ) cacti from
theft may discourage the salvage of smaller cacti such as hedgehog ( Echinocactus spp.)
and pincushion ( Mammillaria spp.). More specifically, the permitting cost which makes
economic sense for a plant worth hundreds of dollars (saguaro) is prohibitive for those
with a value of $10 or so. Likewise, the bureaucratic process of obtaining wide load permits
may work well for mobile home transporters but create major obstacles for companies
trying to move a 25 ft-wide paloverde down the road. Some of the common regulatory
issues related to native plant salvage are briefly discussed, using the state of Arizona as an
example, as well as other challenges faced in the salvaging process.
23.3.1 State Native Plant Laws
Until 1989, Arizona operated under a native plant law, promulgated in 1929, which focused
on preventing cactus theft and the cutting of desert trees for firewood. The enforcement
division of the Arizona Commission of Agriculture and Horticulture were affectionately
known as “Cactus Cops.” Their relationship with the fledgling native plant salvage
industry in 1980s was primarily adversarial. It was a very real possibility that a legitimate
salvage operator could be put out of business for an inadvertent error in not attaching a
tag to a tree. No one anticipated that thousands of native trees, although not theft targets,
would be moved around on semitrailers routinely.
The salvage industry helped organize a coalition that came to be known as the Science and
Industry Group to affect meaningful changes to the native plant law. The group included
representatives from the Arizona Nursery Association, individual nursery businesses, the
Native Plant Society, cactus movers, the Desert Botanical Garden, and many more. The result
was Senate Bill 1086, which became effective in 1990 with the following major provisions:
• Created ive categories of protected native plants each with appropriate rules
based on need. The common native trees were put in a “salvage assessed” group
with streamlined procedures to encourage saving them.
• Required land owners to notify the State of their intent to clear land to allow the
possibility of salvaging trees, since it was not required by the State of Arizona.
The new law also enabled a comprehensive revision of the list of protected species
including a “highly safeguarded” (essentially endangered species) category.
A final challenge for the Science and Industry Group was to keep agency staff members
from nullifying some of the positive changes made by the law with restrictive regulations.
One major issue was the proposal to make tagging of propagated native plants required
even though the law specifically excluded them from the definition of “protected.” This
procedure would have placed a huge administrative burden on nurseries growing native
plants discouraging their use. Fortunately, the agency avoided this item.
At the time of this writing there is a similar proposal related to protected species growing
in developed areas (as opposed to growing in the wild). At present, if such plants are to be
moved, the transporter may use a “blue tag” obtained from the Department of Agriculture
to identify the plant and avoid the possibility of being questioned as to the legality of
moving the plant. The department is considering making the blue tag a requirement due
to the problem of determining whether a plant that may be moved came from a natural
desert area or from someone's front yard. As propagated native trees are now grown
to large sizes on tree farms, the question could be raised as to permitting and tagging
these trees if an enforcement official cannot distinguish a farm-grown individual from a