Currently... (Blog) — Natural Restorations

Over 1.8 Million Pounds (935+ tons) of Trash Removed From Arizona's Outdoor Recreation & Wilderness Areas

& 49,006 Square Feet of Graffiti Removed From Rocks & Boulders! We have planted more than 114,600 trees & cacti!

Over 23,990 hours of restoration work in nature to Military Veterans!

Thank You, Arizona Rock Products Association

We would like to thank everyone at Arizona Rock Products Association (ARPA) for becoming a Sponsor of Natural Restorations earlier this year. They raised & donated $10,500 to our 501c3 nonprofit organization! We are grateful for their commitment to our mission!⁠

ARPA promotes and preserves safe production and the sustainability of the rock products industry through active involvement in the community, regulatory, and political processes.⁠

ARPA, their members and employees care about the communities in which they live and work. As such, member companies, and associations are active participants in charitable, educational, and social issues, and work diligently to ensure that the benefits of their organization and industry span the diverse social and economic needs of our State.⁠

Thank you to everyone at Arizona Rock Products Association for your support of our mission and Arizona’s outdoor spaces!⁠

Celebrating Our 10-Year Anniversary!

We are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Natural Restorations!!! Thank you to everyone who has helped support us along the way! We have a lot ways you can celebrate this major milestone with us over the next 12 months, stay tuned! In the meantime, check out what we have accomplished for Arizona’s public lands over the past 10 year, including a breakdown showing how much we have done for Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Areas, waterways, hiking, & climbing areas across Arizona.

Thank You, OdySea Aquarium!

We would like to thank everyone at OdySea Aquarium for continuing their sponsorship of Natural Restorations & our restoration programs! ⁠OdySea Aquarium seeks to educate, engage, enrich, and inspire all ages to conserve and protect our planet and we love teaming up to remove trash and invasives from rivers and lakes.

We are grateful for OdySea Aquarium’s support of conservation and education organizations, like Natural Restorations, that align with their three core initiatives; Education, Conservation, & Care. Thank you, OdySea Aquarium, for investing in Arizona’s outdoor spaces and our mission.⁠ ⁠

We look forward to teaming up again with Dave, Jess, and their team soon!⁠

Thank You, Native Resources!

We would like to thank everyone at Native Resources for being a Sponsor of Natural Restorations & supporting our Bush Fire Burn Scar Replanting Program! ⁠Last year, they provided access to a cacti salvage in Gold Canyon where our Dedicated Restoration Team salvaged 610 native Sonoran Desert cacti that we replanted in the Bush Fire burn scar at Four Peaks on the Tonto National Forest.⁠

By giving us access to the salvage site, Native Resources helped our team salvage 22 saguaros, 305 hedgehog, 1 barrel, 281 mammallaria, & 2 chain fruit cholla. ⁠Check out a few photos from the salvage. ⁠

Salvage sites are extremely helpful to our Replanting Program because we don’t have to purchase the cacti, we just need our teams labor to dig them out of the ground with hand tools & then transport them to our nursery on the Tonto National Forest before replanting them in the burn scar where they are are desperately needed in the Bush Fire burn scar. ⁠
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Thank you to everyone at Native Resources for your support of our mission and Arizona’s outdoor spaces!⁠ We are excited to continue working with you!⁠

Thank You, Arizona Plasma!

We would like to thank Katie, Justin, & everyone at Arizona Plasma for recently becoming a Sponsor of Natural Restorations, we are grateful for their commitment to our mission! ⁠

We teamed up with them last year when they started donating custom metal signs for us to raise funds for our programs as well as give away at volunteer events! We recently received a $1,200 donation from Arizona Plasma & we will be picking up a HUGE donation of custom metal signs soon that will help us raise even more funding for our programs & help us thank volunteers for their hard work at our events!⁠

Thank you to everyone at Arizona Plasma for your support of our mission and Arizona’s outdoor spaces!⁠

Thank You, Arizona Wholesale Growers!

We would like to thank everyone at Arizona Wholesale Growers for continuing to be a Sponsor of Natural Restorations & our Bush Fire Burn Scar Replanting Program! ⁠Through monthly donations, they donated $1,183.65 in 2024 to our 501c3 nonprofit organization! ⁠

In addition to financial support, they help make a HUGE impact on our replanting program! They donated 37 saguaros last year ranging from 2-1/2 to 6 feet tall, saving our replanting program thousands of dollars. They also give us discounts when we have funding to purchase saguaros for our replanting program which means we can buy more for the burn scar. ⁠⁠

If you have attended a Save Our Saguaros Replanting Event, you have likely planted saguaros we got from Arizona Wholesale Growers!⁠

Thank you to everyone at Arizona Wholesale Growers for your continued support of our mission and Arizona’s outdoor spaces!⁠

Florence Boulders OHV Area Graffiti Removal

In November 2024, our Dedicated Restoration Team removed 253 square feet of graffiti from the Florence Boulders OHV Area on Arizona State Trust Land. This is an area we have been restoring through graffiti removal projects since 2019. Click HERE to view the entire project.

Arizona State Land Department contracted our Dedicated Restoration Team for the graffiti removal and we are grateful for their support!

Thank You, Roses by the Stairs!

We would like to thank everyone at Roses by the Stairs Brewing in Phoenix for donating $448.03 this fall after a 3-month round up campaign raising funds to help support our mission! ⁠

They also teamed up with Beer Barn for their 2nd annual Hometown Heroes Event in August and donated a keg to the event so that Beer Barn could donate sales from that keg to our 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. ⁠

Roses by the Stairs Brewing regularly supports local organizations both through monetary donations and by sharing their space and their platform. Thank you to everyone at Roses by the Stairs Brewing for supporting our mission and Arizona’s outdoor spaces!⁠

Thank you, Salt River Project!

We would like to thank everyone at Salt River Project (SRP) for awarding Natural Restorations with a corporate contribution of operating support for the eighth year in a row, in addition to a grant to support our 7th annual Green Friday Cleanup Event! We are extremely proud to continue our partnership with SRP & we are grateful for their support! ⁠⠀⁠

As a community based, nonprofit public power utility, Salt River Project makes corporate contributions to nonprofit organizations that provide programs and services which meet the needs of their customers and enhance the quality of life we enjoy. They are steadfast in their commitment to partner with nonprofit organizations that provide meaningful and beneficial programs to their customers and community. ⠀⁠⠀

Thank you, SRP, for recognizing the value of the restoration programs we provide! We are excited to continue our relationship and provide volunteer opportunities for SRP employees and their families.⁠

Thank you, Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.

We would like to thank everyone at Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. for becoming a Sponsor of Natural Restorations earlier this year, we are grateful for their commitment to our mission!⁠ ⁠

Through their Green Friday Black IPA brewed last November & their Earth to Beer Hazy IPA brewed for Earth Day this past April, Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. donated $5,000 to support of our mission! ⁠

344 Saguaros Purchased & Replanted in the Bush Fire Burn Scar

Thank you to everyone at Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative for awarding us with a grant to help us purchase 344 saguaros for our Bush Fire Burn Scar Replanting Project at Four Peaks OHV & Recreation Area on the Tonto National Forest.⁠
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We purchased the saguaros from a cacti & succulent nursery owner in Tucson who is retiring. She loves our replanting project & offered us an extremely deep discount if we purchased every saguaro she had. These saguaros range from 1ft to 7ft tall, grown from seed, never under a shade structure, or on a water drip system, so they were perfect for our team to transplant to the burn scar. ⁠
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We’ve never had an opportunity like this before to purchase saguaros larger than 1-foot tall because with each foot, the cost significantly increases, making them financially out of our reach. After receiving permission from the Tonto National Forest to bring these saguaros up from Tucson, our team took 3 trips down to Tucson to dig the saguaros out of the ground, moved them to a U-Haul we rented, & drove them back up to our cacti nursery on the Tonto National Forest until it was time to replant them using grant funding from National Forest Foundation for our teams replanting labor.⁠
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Thank you so much to everyone at Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative, National Forest Foundation, and the U.S. Forest Service Tonto National Forest for their support of our Bush Fire Burn Scar Replanting project! Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Bush Fire Burn Scar fundraiser, your donations also helped with the purchase of these saguaros!⁠
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You can check out all of the project photos HERE.

NR Volunteer Awarded with SRP Presidents' Volunteer Spirit Award

Each year, outstanding SRP employees & retirees are selected for the SRP Presidents’ Volunteer Spirit Awards based on the volunteer work they do within their community. We could not be more proud of Natalia Smith, SRP Safety & Health Specialist, for being a recipient of SRP's Presidents' Volunteer Spirit Award for 2024 as a result of her volunteer work with us. ⁠

Natalia embodies the spirit of volunteerism! She has been volunteering with us for the past seven years & has been able to combine her love of nature & outdoor recreation with her passion for making a difference & keeping Arizona beautiful. ⁠

Natalia donates her time & energy for the benefit of the environment, wildlife, & people in the community. Natalia leads by example & helps us show that you can make a significant impact on the environment in a short amount of time with a group of committed individuals. Natalia inspires coworkers, friends, family, & everyone she meets with her selfless service. ⁠

In honor of Natalia's outstanding volunteer service, SRP presented Natural Restorations with a check for $2,500 during the award ceremony. We are grateful for Natalia's commitment to our mission, environmental stewardship, & encouraging other community members to get involved & leave areas better than they find them. ⁠Click HERE to view a video played during the award ceremony. ⁠

We also recently received a $250 donation from SRP in recognition of Natalia's volunteer service through SRP's Dollars for Doers program. ⁠

Thank you to Natalia & everyone at SRP for your continued support of our mission! ⁠

Granite Gardens Graffiti Removal Project

On June 2nd, Justin Corey, Director of Field Operations & Co-Founder of Natural Restorations, teamed up with the Prescott Climbers Coalition and City of Prescott to help them remove 68 square feet of graffiti from Granite Gardens. ⁠Click HERE to view the entire project.

Donate $5 to Support Our Bush Fire Burn Scar Replanting Fundraiser

Help us raise $10,000 for our Bush Fire Burn Scar Replanting Program! We need your help raising funds for our team to salvage saguaros and other native desert cacti from land development sites, purchase saguaros at amazing discounts from cacti nurseries, & replant them in the 2020 Bush Fire burn scar on the Tonto National Forest. ⁠

We have a lot of amazing opportunities right now to greatly increase our impact on the burn scar, but we can’t do it without your help! Any amount helps! Please consider donating $5 to help us reach our goal, thank you!

Click the HERE to donate on our website through Square, Zelle, Venmo, or PayPal. Thank you!

Desert Garden Montessori Students Growing Saguaros for Our Replanting Program

In April, Justin & I had the opportunity to visit Desert Garden Montessori School in Phoenix talk to their students about saguaros, wildfires in the Sonoran Desert, & to set up Saguaro Growing Kits for several of their classrooms. Thank you to everyone at AC Infinity for donating Humidity Dome, Germination Kits with LED Grow Light Bars to help us get this started!⁠

Students took turns placing dirt in the AC Infinity grow trays, spreading saguaro seeds, lightly covering them with dirt, and gently misting them. Once the trays were seeded and misted, Justin set up the AC Infinity grow trays in classrooms that includes a lighting system on a timer. We also provided each classroom with a misting bottle and instruction sheet. We're happy to report they already have saguaros sprouting! ⁠

 In 2020, the Bush Fire burned over 193,000 acres & over 80,000 saguaros burned in Arizona’s 5th largest wildfire. ⁠Most of the fire occurred in the Sonoran Desert, an ecosystem not evolved or adapted to wildfires. When we lose an adult saguaro, it’s not something that will be replaced in our lifetime. ⁠

By growing saguaros for the burn scar, students at Desert Garden Montessori School are helping us with the long-term restoration of this unique ecosystem. Our hope is to eventually bring students out to the burn scar to see where their saguaros will end up. Over the summer, families from Desert Garden Montessori School will adopt the saguaros babies to mist them throughout the summer and bring them back to the school in the fall. ⁠

We want to continue working with Desert Garden Montessori School growing saguaros for our replanting program for years to come. We loved their enthusiasm & excitement for saguaros & learning why it's important to preserve, restore, & protect our outdoor spaces. ⁠We LOVE the drawings & notes from students, they mean a lot to us!

Thanks you to everyone at Desert Garden Montessori School & AC Infinity for supporting our Saguaro Growing Program! ⁠