This project was a combined effort in partnership with grants & donations from the U.S. Forest Service Southwestern Region (RAC Grant), the National Forest Foundation, Arizona 4Runner Outsiders, AVNET, the Arizona Community Foundation through the Helen Dyar King Fund, Arizona Financial Credit Union, & SRP.
the 2020 Bush Fire
On June 13th, 2020 an individual driving south on SR87 from Payson to Phoenix, noticed their car was overheating and smoke was coming out from underneath. They pulled off the highway to safely inspect the vehicle, but they pulled onto dry grass and the heat from the brakes sparked the 5th largest wildfire in Arizona history.
Years of extreme drought and increased fuel loads (largely made up of non-native, invasive weeds and shrubs) carried the flames through 193,455 acres of the Tonto National Forest. It devastated multiple ecosystems at Lower Sycamore and in the Four Peaks Wilderness Area as the fire burned over the top of Four Peaks and back down towards Roosevelt Lake. Unfortunately, most of the fire occurred in the Sonoran Desert, an ecosystem that has not evolved or adapted to wildfires. With the impact to over 80,000 iconic saguaros, Natural Restorations is dedicated to the long-term efforts to restore and revegetate the Bush Fire burn scar.
2,414 Cacti salvaged from construction sites & private properties
3,361 cacti replanted in the 2020 bush fire burn scar
1,057 saguaros replanted in the burn scar
saguaro, hedgehog, barrel, prickly pear, ocotillo, & SEVERAL varieties of cholla
We were honored at the 2023 U.S. Forest Service Chief’s Honor Awards Ceremony for our work on the Four Peaks Restoration Project.
This project was a combined effort in partnership with grants and donations from the U.S. Forest Service Southwestern Region (RAC Grant), the National Forest Foundation, Arizona 4Runner Outsiders, AVNET, the Arizona Community Foundation through the Helen Dyar King Fund, Arizona Financial Credit Union, and SRP.
Through these grants, our Dedicated Restoration Team salvaged 2414 cacti, including 110 saguaros from construction sites & private properties. We also had the opportunity to purchase saguaros with grant funding and we received some donated cactus and saplings. We planted 3,361 cacti, including 1,057 saguaros in the 2020 Bush Fire burn scar at Four Peaks & Lower Sycamore.
This project provided 1,368 hours of work to Military Veterans on our team. Veterans working with us benefited from our program not only through paid contract work but also through spending time in nature with other veterans. It is extremely rewarding to accomplish these restoration projects, bringing life back to a fire scar area and making a lasting impact on the state.
Replanting this burn scar directly supports the creation, restoration, improvement, and protection of Sonoran Desert habitats. Wildlife, including pollinators, benefit from the replanting of their native habitat.
Replanting improves the usability and safety of the area for the outdoor community. Bringing native plant communities back to these watersheds helps soil stabilization & reduces the effects of erosion caused by water and wind.
Thank you to U.S. Forest Service Southwestern Region (RAC Grant), the National Forest Foundation, Arizona 4Runner Outsiders, AVNET, the Arizona Community Foundation through the Helen Dyar King Fund, Arizona Financial Credit Union, and SRP for helping us make lasting impacts on Arizona’s natural spaces and the veterans on our team, we are grateful for your support.
Do not take cacti, trees, or plants from construction or development sites, private land or public land. We go through a lengthy process to ensure we are legally allowed to collect, transport, and replant in the burn scar.
This project consisted of many parts: Salvaging, Transporting, Replanting, and Monitoring.
Salvaging: We work with home builders, construction companies, and private land owners to salvage cacti for the burn scar. Our Dedicated Restoration Team salvages saguaros, barrels, hedgehog, ocotillo, prickly pear, & 3 types of cholla with hand tools. We salvaged 2,414 cacti for this project!
TRANSPORTING: Once loaded in our trailer and truck bed, we transport cacti to our cacti nursery on the Tonto National Forest for a safe, shaded place to store them before replanting.
REPLANTING: Our team transports cacti from our nursery to the Bush Fire burn scar. We unload them, walk them through the burn scar & place them in areas where they will have the best chance of survival.
We dig holes, replant them with our markers facing the same direction we salvaged them facing, and water them. We replanted 3,361 cacti, including 1,057 saguaros!
MONITORING & WATERING: We regularly monitor everything in our replanting areas and water as needed depending on weather conditions. We lost a few saguaros to careless people using them for target shooting practice.
THANK YOU: Thank you to the home builders, construction companies, & private land owners we worked with for everything they did to help make this project possible!
We are grateful for the opportunity to legally collect, transport, and replant cacti in the burn scar. Thank you to everyone from the Tonto National Forest - Mesa Ranger District for all of their help and support of this project!
We would also like to thank Arizona Wholesale Growers, we worked with them to purchase healthy saguaros for the project with grant funding.
If you or your organization is interested in helping fund replanting projects, please contact us.
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4th annual Save Our Saguaros Replanting Event
On Saturday, November 11th, 2023, we partnered with the National Forest Foundation, the US. Forest Service Tonto National Forest, Four Peaks Brewing Co., & Arizona Wholesale Growers for the 4th annual Save Our Saguaros Replanting Event.
95 volunteers, including 21 youth volunteers, helped us plant 100 1-foot saguaros in the 2020 Bush Fire burn scar at Four Peaks. 76 saguaros 1-foot saguaros were purchased with grant funds from the National Forest Foundation and the remaining 24 1-foot saguaros were donated by Arizona Wholesale Growers.
View all of the event photos HERE
Photos courtesy of CVC Photography
Bush Highway Saguaro Relocation
Driving down Bush Highway on our way to work in late August, our Dedicated Restoration Team noticed a saguaro along Bush Highway on the edge of an eroding bank. The saguaros roots were exposed and it was in imminent danger of falling over and onto Bush Highway.
We worked with the U.S. Forest Service Tonto National Forest - Mesa Ranger District, MCDOT, and the State Department of Agriculture to get the proper permits in place for our team to salvage and relocate the saguaro to the 2020 Bush Fire burn scar at Four Peaks on the Tonto National Forest.
In September, our team received permission to salvage and relocate this beautiful saguaro with an amazing root system to the Bush Fire burn scar at Four Peaks on the Tonto National Forest. Thank you to all of the agencies that worked with us to make this relocation possible!
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Sometimes the saguaros our team salvages do not look like something you would see for sale at a commercial cacti nursery & that’s okay. Saguaros like the one above may not look perfect but it still has a purpose in the burn scar. this saguaro scarred over to repair itself & will continue to grow as it establishes itself in it’s new home.
Watering cacti in the desert
Watering cacti is not only valuable in providing initial water to reduce transplant shock, it also aids in compacting the soil around the freshly planted root network.
We continue to monitor the areas we replant and water as needed if we do not get sufficient rain.
Collecting
Where do the cacti come from?
The cacti for this replanting project are provided when we work with construction companies, home builders, and private land owners that let our Dedicated Restoration Team salvage cacti with hand tools. We also received grant funding to purchase additional saguaros for the project.
