6th annual save our saguaros

On Saturday, November 8th, 2025, we partnered with Wells Fargo, National Forest Foundation, the US. Forest Service Tonto National Forest, The Mission Continues, Arizona Wholesale Growers, & Stellar Adventures for the 6th annual Save Our Saguaros Replanting Event & Veteran’s Day Weekend Celebration.⁠

120 volunteers, including 21 youth volunteers, helped us plant 148 2foot to 3-1/2 foot saguaros in the 2020 Bush Fire burn scar at Four Peaks on the Tonto National Forest. ⁠Saguaros were purchased at a deep discount from Arizona Wholesale Growers through a grant we received from Wells Fargo and funding we received from National Forest Foundation.

Photo by Jenny Davis from National Forest Foundation

Our Dedicated Restoration Team walked volunteers through a step-by-step demonstration on the process of planting a saguaro and setting it up for the best chance of long-term survival.

Volunteers worked in small groups to get each saguaro from the staging area, using special leather/kevlar gloves to protect their hands, over to a suitable planting areas, digging a hole for their saguaro, putting the saguaro in the ground with the red marking tape knot facing north to keep its established orientation, making sure it’s not too deep, too shallow, or leaning. Volunteers used tamping bars and their boots to help compact the dirt surrounding the saguaros to ensure they won’t fall over in high winds or after rainfall.

Volunteers had members of our Dedicated Restoration Team check each saguaro before moving onto the next one to ensure they could give feedback if any changes needed to be made. Our goal is to plant them right the first time and have a group of volunteers who have been properly trained and can come back year after year to help us replant this area.

If the marking tape fell off of a saguaro, volunteers worked with a member of our Dedicated Restoration Team to determine its north facing side.

If a saguaro is planted in the opposite direction it was established, the previously shaded, tender skin will get scorched by intense direct sun, causing sunburn, cracking, or even death.

Saguaro skin develops differently on each side, thicker on the sun-facing side, so we must maintain the original orientation (north side facing north). Sometimes we work with saguaro nurseries that mark the south facing side and then we adjust to ensure the south side or those saguaros are planted facing south.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE 2020 BUSH FIRE

On June 13th, 2020 the 5th largest wildlife in Arizona history was sparked when an individual driving south on SR87 from Payson to Phoenix, noticed their car was overheating. They pulled off the highway to safely inspect the vehicle, but they parked on dry grass and the heat from their brakes sparked the fire.

Flames carried through 193,455 acres of the Tonto National Forest. It devastated multiple ecosystems in the Four Peaks Wilderness Area as the fire burned over the top of Four Peaks and back down towards Roosevelt Lake. Unfortunately, most of the fire occurred in the Sonoran Desert, an ecosystem not evolved or adapted to wildfires. With the impact to over 80,000 iconic saguaros and thousands of other native desert cacti, plants, and trees, Natural Restorations is dedicated to the long-term efforts to restore and revegetate this burn scar. View other replanting events & projects HERE.

This EVENT was financed by a grant from Wells Fargo

& funding from National Forest Foundation & the Mission continues

Thank you to everyone at Wells Fargo for awarding us with a grant for the 6th annual Save Our Saguaros Replanting Event, as well as our saguaro monitoring program.

Thank you to everyone at National Forest Foundation awarding us with funding to help us get additional saguaros for volunteers to plant.

Thank you to Shawn Cox and everyone at Arizona Wholesale Growers for their continued support of this event and our Replanting Program. They helped us make the most of our grant funding and delivered 148 beautiful 2 to 3-1/2 foot saguaros for this event!

Thank you to everyone from The Mission Continues for their financial support of this event and planting saguaros with us. One of the military veterans on our Dedicated Restoration Team who regularly plants saguaros with us is also a Phoenix Platoon Leader with The Mission Continues and we loved having him in attendance with a group of volunteers from The Mission Continues.

We also want to recognize Stellar Adventures for donating the delivery & use of their portable bathrooms. Without their donation, some volunteers would not be able to attend remote location events.

This event was also possible due to support from our Sponsors: AC Infinity, AZ 4Runner Outsiders, Arizona Toy Pros, Arizona Plasma, Arizona Rock Products Association, Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co., Beer Barn, Desert Monsters Tours, Icon Vehicle Dynamics, Illuminated Funds Group, Native Resources, No Snow Standup Paddleboards, OdySea Aquarium, Resolution Copper, Saguaro Lake Guest Ranch, Salt River Project, State 48 Overland, Verderia, Victory 4x4, Visit Mesa, Wild West Off-Road Recovery, & Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative.

WATERING CACTI IN THE DESERT

Watering cacti is not only valuable in providing initial water to reduce transplant shock, it also aids in compacting the soil around the freshly planted root network. This was accomplished by providing each newly planted cacti with a little water, no easy task in the middle of the desert. We used the water trailer that we purchased through a grant from the the National Forest Foundation. Thank you to Bec & Julia from the Tonto National Forest Service for bringing it out to the event for us!