AUSTIN, Texas, June 3 (UPI) -- Environmentalists Tuesday praised legislation passed by Texas legislators to crackdown on cactus poachers, a problem in the Southwest driven largely by the growing popularity of low-water landscaping.
The bill authored by state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, follows the lines of legislation enacted by Arizona a decade ago that requires wild plants legally collected on private property be tagged.
"From Phoenix to El Paso, homeowners have real restrictions on the use of water for lawns, thus cacti have economic value that even two years ago they did not have," the senator said. "As a result, poachers are stealing valuable cacti from state parks, ranch land, BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land to use for xeriscapes."
Shapleigh said cacti such Golden Barrel and Texas Rainbow are very fragile and if they are lost the desert ecosystem will be "severely harmed."
The rare cactus in the Chihuahuan Desert that stretches from Mexico up into Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are highly valued. Some Golden Barrel plants can sell for $$@$!300 to $$@$!500, Shapleigh said.
Botanist Chris Robbins, who co-authored a World Wildlife Fund report on cactus poaching, said xeriscaping creates the major demand for cactus, although water conservation is a laudable goal in the arid Southwest.
"Xeriscaping has become a large industry and popular way to landscape in light of the water shortages in the Southwest and folks are looking for desert hardy plants to replace lawns," he said.
Overseas collectors in Europe and Japan create another demand for the rare Chihuahuan cactus, almost a quarter of the 1,500 species known to science, according to Robbins, whose report, "Prickly Trade," was released in January by the WWF.
About $$@$!1 millionworth of cactus is shipped annually from Texas to Arizona, using Texas as sort of a cactus-laundering center, the report said. Plants from Mexico are also smuggled across the border and sold as Texas plants.
In the past, Texas plants could be stolen and sold in Arizona at lower prices than Arizona-grown plants, which required permits and tags.
"It's quite a milestone for Texas to have passed this legislation," said Robbins. "It not only protects the plants but the private landowners by ensuring that they are harvested legally and authorized by private land owners."
Shapleigh said he expects Gov. Rick Perry to sign the bill.
The legislation requires proof that cacti sold on the retail market was harvested with the owner's permission. Violations constitute a Class B misdemeanor with a fine up to $$@$!1,000 and a jail sentence of up to six months.
Xeriscaping is growing in cities like Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas. Barrel cactus, prickly pear cactus and saguaro cactus are the most popular species but many suppliers find it easier to dig up wild plants than grow them, according to the WWF report.
(Reported by Phil Magers in Dallas)
