Aug. 4, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ET
ORO VALLEY, Ariz. It began with a flash of lightning, the fire that swept across the rugged Santa Catalina Mountains on Tucson’s edge. By the time firefighters got the blaze under control, it had torched thousands of saguaros, the towering cactuses that can reach heights of 60 feet and live for 200 years.
The loss was gut-wrenching for many in Arizona, where Indigenous peoples learned to draw sustenance from the treelike saguaros long before they emerged as a celebrated symbol of the Southwest. Some saguaros are still standing within the year-old scar of the Bighorn Fire, their trunks singed all the way up to their limbs, a testament to their reputation as masters of desert survival.
Climate Change and Other Factors Influencing the Saguaro Cactus (U S National Park Service) nps.gov - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nps.gov Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Simon Romero, The New York Times
Published: 04 Aug 2021 01:17 PM BdST
Updated: 04 Aug 2021 01:17 PM BdST Saguaros grow in Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Ariz, July 26, 2021. The New York Times A saguaro cactus that was burned by the Bighorn Fire last year in Catalina State Park in Tucson, Ariz, July 27, 2021. The New York Times
It began with a flash of lightning, the fire that swept across the rugged Santa Catalina Mountains on Tucson’s edge. By the time firefighters got the blaze under control, it had torched thousands of saguaros, the towering cactuses that can reach heights of 60 feet and live for 200 years.
Experts are tracking an unprecedented outbreak of blooms in strange locations on saguaros across Southern Arizona. Environmental stresses could be to blame.