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Saguaro Cacti Tagged By Vandals At Saguaro National Park

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By NPT Staff - May 14th, 2013

This saguaro was one of at least eight that were spray-painted by vandals at Saguaro National Park. NPS photo.

It appears little is free from graffiti vandalism, not even age-old saguaro cacti at Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona.

Park Superintendent Darla Sidles reports that at least eight saguaros and some boulders along the Douglas Springs Trail in the park's Rincon District were tagged by the spray-paint-wielding vandals sometime last weekend.

Some of the saguaros that were defaced were as much as 150 years old, according to the superintendent.

"They were seedlings during our nation's civil war and have stood this long inside what is now a national park-designated wilderness area, designed to protect them," Superintendent Sidles said in a news release.

Anyone with information about the vandalism can call the Saguaro National Park Information Hotline at 520-733-5150.

Comments

Submitted by Jim Burnett on May 16, 2013 - 7:57pm.

Sadly, this seems to be a growing problem in other western parks as well, and some of those have been covered on the Traveler:

Here are links to stories on a current problem at Joshua Tree National Park, and an earlier one at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.


Submitted by Kurt Repanshek on May 16, 2013 - 8:18pm.

FWIW, I believe Felicity is based on the "left" coast...


Submitted by Lee Dalton on May 16, 2013 - 9:51pm.

Feilicity, here are a few photos of bullet and modern scratchings on ancient petroglyphs located in Dinosaur National Park. You can find bullet holes in almost all petroglyphs everywhere in the southwest.

Road signs take their share of hits, too.


Submitted by Felicity on May 23, 2013 - 4:32pm.

Thanks to all who posted advice or contacted me separately. I'm on the case. And yes, I'm based in the SF Bay area, but I can certianly call the NYC-area parks. The thing that's interesting to me is that people are going so far away from urban areas to do their tagging.

And yes, "tagging" with bullets sure sems part of the same phenomenon.

Allbest,

Felicity


Submitted by roadrunner55 on June 5, 2013 - 2:21pm.

I grew up living in the National Parks and Saguaro was the first one. This trend is eveidence that "you can't fix stupid". Park funding to protect and educate visitors is one of the first to be cut and yet this is part of our history and heritage. I have had the privilege of living in areas that are the best part of our country. It breaks my heart that my grandchildren will not be able to see them without seeing evidence of the most irresponsible segments of our society.


Submitted by Lee Dalton on June 8, 2013 - 8:30am.

Felicity Barringer's article in the New York times was featured yesterday morning as an item in the NPS daily Digest. Here's a link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/us/as-vandals-take-to-national-parks-s...

And a link to the NPS Digest article:

http://www.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Incidents&id=6628

Thanks, Felicity. Great work.


Submitted by Sagebrusher on June 10, 2013 - 3:34pm.

Speaking of Dinosaur National Monument(not Park), there was an incident of vandalism in 2000 that actually resulted in conviction and time served! Felicity, you might look into the hand slaps that most vandals receive.


Submitted by Moonpie on June 11, 2013 - 11:48am.

Anybody else remember a few years back when justice was served on a man in Arizona who was shooting up a saguaro with his shotgun -- and part of it fell off and crushed him? Here's one link: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/saguaro.asp

I wouldn't mind seeing the current perps tarred and feathered, at bare minimum...


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