And icon of the desert. The Sawara cactus is being threatened by
drought conditions and rising temperatures are reporter Stephanie
Sai ventured into the Sonoran Desert to see what those trends mean
for ecosystems across the Southwest.
On the edge of Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona, Maria Francisco
and Tunisia. Tucker uphold the sacred tradition of the atom tribe
harvesting fruit from the majestic Saguaro, the largest cactus in
the U. S.
Using an old Saguaro rib as a gathering tool. They have only a few
weeks each summer to do the picking before Southern Arizona's monsoon
season spoils the fruit. The fruit that we cook and turn into syrup
becomes wine, and that wine is then used for rain ceremonies. Sacred
tradition has remained the same. But the Sawa rose themselves are
changing.
For Francisco. The first sign of this is the late ripening of the
fruit. When I used to come out here with my Aunt Stella, I would
be out here like mine. My
And she'd be out here in May. Now it's like mid June.
What we're concerned about is that they were seeing far fewer very
small. Soro's
In Sawara National Park, which is brimming with the plants. Biologist
Don Swan says prolonged drought conditions and higher temperatures
are increasing the mortality rate of young Celera's The older They
are, the more resilient they become to deeper and deeper droughts.
Right, so they're very resilient when they're when they're, you know,
60 years old, but they're not very resilient when they're five years
old.
2018 National Park report showed that of the 10,000 Saguaro studied
within the park, just 70 were less than 15 years old.
We're trying to understand how changes in temperature and precipitation
in the future might affect the reproductive potential of sorrows.
You know everything from how old they are when they start reproducing
to how many flowers do they produce?
To do this. They fix a GoPro camera to what amounts to a very tall
selfie stick in spring and summer. They regularly take pictures of
the flowers that bloom on the tops of Saguaro arms.
When compared over time, the pictures document changes to the Saguaro
lifecycle. The plants. Flowers, which went pollinated produced the
fruit can give scientists key information about long term impacts
of climate change. But to swan borrows are about more than science
for me. What's so wonderful about sorrows is really kind of the way
that
They move people and a lot of people who live here will tell you
that one of the reasons they live here is because of this plant.
Rising temperatures and drought aren't the only threats to the Guare's
invasive grass species like this compete for water and also increased
fire risk. We have this increase of nine native grasses, the grass
ification of the western United States and in many of the deserts
and that drives a fire regime and introduces a fire regime to the
desert.
That's pretty novel. You can see the burn marks on that one. Then
Wilder isn't Ecologist studying the long term impact of fire damage
on the Sonoran Desert ecosystem. Remnants of the 2020 Bighorn fire
can still be found in the Santa Catalina Mountains on Tucson's perimeter.
Thousands of Sarahs were killed in the place.
I hope opening in terms of
What is the desserts capacity for resilience in the face of fire,
and that's truly an open question right now.
Tomorrow isn't the only Western species under threat from the wildfires
being fueled by climate change within the Mojave National Preserve.
In California, an estimated 1.3 million Joshua trees were killed
in a 2020 wildfire. That same year, wildfires killed approximately
10% of the world's giant sequoia trees.
Last year, another 5% were lost two additional wildfires in the state.
Coming to grips with the massive loss that is happening, um as part
of the ecological change that we're all within.
To counter the loss. The Tucson Audubon Society is planting young
Samaras, positioning them near so called nurse plants, which act
as shade and shields. Jonathan Horse says sorrows are a keystone
species.
14 species of birds, multiple species of bats, hundreds of species
of insects.
Rodents.
Have Alina foxes. Everything is chowing down on the fruits when they
drop
Without sorrows in a lot of ways, Giant pieces of the Sonoran Desert
ecosystem just implode.
Soon. Thousands of these sorrows will be planted in southern Arizona
Santa Catalina Mountains as part of a larger restoration effort first
two years that's the most critical establishment phase.
Then the survival rate.
Significantly increases.
These imposing desert plants are moored with spikes suddenly seemed
vulnerable. And to Tunisia, Tucker and Maria Francisco. It's like
watching a relative suffer. We have a relationship with them. So
in our creation stories, we mentioned them, and we talk about them
as being people and elders. But they also talk about them as nature
survivors whom they revere after scraping the fruit out and savoring
its sweetness.
The empty pods are solemnly returned to the giver.
As a native American. We're very resilient people. We always bounce
back, and that's how I see this world. You know they're going to
adjust to climate change.
Who and what can adjust is the biggest question facing not only the
Sonoran Desert but the whole planet.