These ignorant thieves can sometimes do even more damage because, in a sensitive environment like this, even a small change can have a dramatic effect, says Mr. While he has caught people driving off with truckloads of barrel cacti, yucca plants, and ocotillo trees, a more common occurrence is a solitary person digging up a single cactus for medicinal purposes or to plant in their garden. Then there are those who pluck a cactus from a state or national park and don't realize that it's against the law, says Danny Contreras, a park ranger at the Franklin Mountains State Park near El Paso.
Large barrel, prickly pear, and saguaro cacti are the most sought-after varieties for desert landscaping, called xeriscaping, which has taken off in cities such as Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas.īecause of Arizona's strict laws regarding cactus harvesting, landscaping suppliers - who find it easier and faster to dig up full-grown plants in the wild than propagate them in nurseries - turn to unregulated Texas.īetween 19, for instance, nearly 100,000 succulents worth an estimated $3 million were shipped to Arizona from Texas. Instead of the lassos and horses used to rustle cattle in wild West days, today's cactus rustlers use shovels and pickup trucks. It's not like that anymore," he says.įield collection is a tricky proposition.
"Used to be you could just go scrape them off the desert, just have at it. Thomas spends most of his time propagating the species he has. He isn't interested in field collection, though he admits he is not above buying field-collected plants.
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He and his wife, Lyn, spend every free moment tending the plants, which he estimates are worth about a half a million dollars. Most he has grown himself from seed, but some of the older and rarer varieties were field collected - that is, harvested from the wild. Visitors step from his back door into his bright nursery, where he has hundreds of cacti and succulents in green pots. But just the fact that not everybody does it makes it fun," he says from his Houston home. "You definitely have to have the right mentality for. In Texas, where he lives, laws permit landowners to harvest cacti from their property or give others permission to do so, and many who view the plants as nuisances are happy to be rid of them. He's been a succulent enthusiast for more than a quarter of a century. Robbins.ĭavid Thomas understands the allure. This causes "cactophiles" to quiver - and sometimes go to unscrupulous lengths to obtain the next addition to their collection, says Mr. The Chihuahuan Desert - one of the most biologically diverse deserts in the world - is home to almost a quarter of the 1,500 cactus species known to science, including many found nowhere else on earth. "Because of the booming market for desert plants used in landscaping, and over enthusiasm by private collectors, we are running the risk of losing certain species," says Christopher Robbins, a botanist and author of "Prickly Trade," a new report by the World Wildlife Fund in Washington. These thieves don't dodge the cacti that poke out of the dry earth they stop and dig them up.ĭemand for wild cactus and succulent plants is growing so rapidly that scientists and environmentalists worry about the survival of some of the rarest species in the vast Chihuahuan Desert, only 3 percent of which is protected land. While the practice continues today in more sophisticated fashion, lawmen are increasingly turning their attention to a different kind of desert swindler.
Tales still linger of corrupt cowboys stampeding herds of cattle northward through Texas, using six- shooters to defend themselves if necessary. The sparsely populated Chihuahuan Desert has for centuries been a breeding ground for rustlers, poachers, and outlaws.
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