About eight years ago, Cam Juarez embarked on his first day as the newly appointed Community Engagement Officer at Saguaro National Park, full of first-day jitters. Nothing could have prepared him to find himself in the center of a crime scene. Laying on the ground were six healthy saguaros, illegally sliced up on the ground from the previous night.

​

Juarez will never forget that day. “Tucson went bananas,” he recalls, “there was a manhunt trying to find the person because it was so awful.”  

​

Sadly, this isn’t an isolated incident. Across the Southwest, thousands of saguaros are common targets of the growing cactus black market. Cactus poachers often sell saguaro arms for hundreds of dollars. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only issue that threatens saguaros. A new and more concerning threat is hurting Arizona’s beloved cacti: climate.

​

While saguaros are known to thrive in the desert, climate change and other environmental factors have made their habitat too hot and dry for these succulents to handle. The sad reality is that Arizona’s beloved saguaro cacti are dying. As the climate conditions continue to rise and more saguaros die, the consequences for Arizona’s wildlife and biodiversity are severe.