A Cronkite News Service Weekend Special

‘CACTUS COPS’ STRUGGLING TO KEEP UP WITH THEFTS FROM STATE LAND

NOTE: This story moved Thursday, Nov. 29. We recommend it for weekend use.

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (thumbnails, captions below)

By JONATHAN J. COOPER
Cronkite News Service

ORACLE JUNCTION _ It took decades for these three saguaros, now shriveled skeletons, to reach 7 feet tall. Thieves ripped the cactuses from the ground, probably hoping to sell them for use in landscaping, before a rancher forced them to leave empty-handed.

As a so-called “cactus cop,” Mike Reimer investigates such thefts for the Arizona Department of Agriculture. But with millions of acres to patrol and strong demand for saguaros and other desert plants, it’s tough for Reimer and the agency’s one other native plant officer to keep up with those wanting to pinch cactuses from state land.

“It’s so rare to run across them lifting saguaros out of the ground,” Reimer said.

The Agriculture Department wants more investigators to protect native plants, but there isn’t money for it, and even the money that covers Reimer’s salary is drying up, officials say.

“These plants are really important to who we are as Arizonans,” said Ed Hermes, a lobbyist and spokesman for the Agriculture Department. “With development and theft, it’s quickly destroying that piece of our heritage, and it needs to be protected”

Investigators face a lucrative market for stolen saguaros, which can fetch hundreds of dollars from homeowners who often don’t know the cactuses are illegal, Reimer said.

Budget cuts trimmed four officer positions in 2001, leaving the Reimer, based in Tucson, and Phoenix-based Jim McGinnis with little time to patrol.

“We used to do days and into the night on surveillance,” McGinnis said. “We can’t do that anymore. The resources just aren’t there.”

In a remote part of Pinal County northwest of Oracle Junction, Reimer showed a reporter the three dead saguaros and explained he had been investigating this case for three years. The rancher who stopped the thefts took down a license plate that led Reimer to suspects, but he has yet to make an arrest.

“If the rancher hadn’t have been here they’d never have been caught,” Reimer said.

A few miles away, Reimer points out a homemade cradle used to carry saguaros. After someone reported the cradle, Reimer staked out the area, but no one came back.

Such a stakeout is rare these days. The two plant officers now spend most of their time looking into reports of thefts.

They also sell permits allowing landscapers to legally salvage plants from private land and state land planned for development.

Permit sales go into a native plant fund that pays salaries for the two plant officers, but Hermes said that revenue has been steadily declining because the officers lack the resources to track those who avoid buying permits.

The thieves know when Reimer and McGinnis are in the office selling permits and can dig up a saguaro in as little as 15 minutes, Reimer said.

Officials are looking for ways to shore up the native plant fund and boost patrols. They are considering adding the fund to the list of public service programs to which taxpayers can make annual contributions with their tax filings, Hermes said.

Adding the native plant fund would generate about $60,000 to $200,000 per year, Hermes said.

“It doesn’t seem like much, but it could hire another law enforcement officer,” he said.

Another proposal would direct cactus theft fines back into the native plant fund, Hermes said. They now go into the state’s general fund.

Both scenarios would require legislative approval.

Plant officers want to avoid raising permit fees because they fear it would only encourage more theft. Permits cost $6 per plant, plus an extra $5 for every plot of land involved.

Stealing a protected native plant is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,500. Crossing state lines with stolen plants can land jail time under a federal law, McGinnis said.

Reimer and McGinnis also enforce statutes encouraging the salvage of native plants from private land, another responsibility tugging at their time.

Private landowners planning to destroy protected plants must file a notice with the Agriculture Department and wait up to 60 days, depending on the number of acres being cleared.

The waiting period is waived if the landowners allow landscapers to salvage saguaros, palo verdes, mesquites and other native plants.

McGinnis is investigating a case involving a Cave Creek man who says a developer bulldozed an acre of investment property without his knowledge or permission.

But McGinnis said he has little time to look into that case, he said.

“Unfortunately, it’s one of those low priority cases,” McGinnis said. “One, the damage is done. Two, I know who the people are.”

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Web Link:

_ Department of Agriculture: www.azda.gov

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PHOTOS: Click thumbnails to see full-resolution images and download

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-CACTUS COPS: Mike Reimer, an investigator with the Arizona Department of Agriculture, points to a permit tag on a saguaro near Oracle Junction on Nov. 20, 2007. The tag is evidence in a three-year-old case Reimer investigated after thieves tried to steal cactuses from state trust land. A fund that pays Reimer and another native plant officer is drying up, and officials worry that thieves will steal even more desert plants from state land without the so-called “cactus cops” on duty. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-CACTUS COPS: The skeletons of three saguaro cactuses bake in the sun near Oracle Junction. Thieves ripped the saguaros from the ground but were caught by a rancher before the cactuses could fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. A fund that pays the salaries of two Arizona Department of Agriculture native plant officers who investigate such thefts is drying up, and officials worry that thieves will steal even more desert plants from state land without the so-called “cactus cops” on duty. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-CACTUS COPS: A homemade cradle used to steal saguaro cactuses sits abandoned in the desert near Oracle Junction. A fund that pays the salaries of two Arizona Department of Agriculture native plant officers who investigate such thefts is drying up, and officials worry that thieves will steal even more desert plants from state land without the so-called “cactus cops” on duty. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)

CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-CACTUS COPS: A homemade cradle used to steal saguaro cactuses sits abandoned in the desert near Oracle Junction. A fund that pays the salaries of two Arizona Department of Agriculture native plant officers who investigate such thefts is drying up, and officials worry that thieves will steal even more desert plants from state land without the so-called “cactus cops” on duty. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper)