What terrible reporting. How are cacti poached — do they have to dig up a root system? And who is the customer for poached saguaro cactus?
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>> “And who is the customer for poached saguaro cactus?” <<
Las Vegas casinos, and wealthy home owners.
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Succulants don’t have particularly deep roots, and they re-root easily.
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That’s actually a big part of the problem. Saguaro’s are very sensitive, if you don’t transplant them correctly (part of which is re-orienting them, whatever side was north to start needs to be north in the end) they die. So a lot of this poaching is really just killing very old very slow growing plants. Legit saguaro purchases are very expensive, though getting rid of them can be quite lucrative, my boss was having a tree removed and the company offered to take the tree for free and give him $400 if he let them have his 10’ saguaro. Lots of paperwork, but a good deal.