Iconic saguaro cactuses hacked up in ‘senseless act of vandalism,’ Arizona park says

Vandals slashed and cut down several saguaro cactuses in Saguaro National Park in Arizona, officials said.

The park said Wednesday that multiple big cactuses were damaged in the Scenic Trailhead area of the West District around Oct. 3.

“All plants, animals, and resources in the national park are protected,” Superintendent Leah McGinnis told ABC15. “Damage to saguaro cacti is especially disheartening because they are the reason for the park’s establishment.”

Saguaro cactuses are an “icon of the American west,” the National Park Service said on its website. They are huge and green, and they only grow in the Sonoran Desert.

“The saguaro cactus is the largest cactus in the United States, and will normally reach heights of 40 feet tall,” the National Park Service said. “The tallest saguaro cactus ever measured towered over 78 feet into the air.”

At least eight saguaro cactuses were slashed, news outlets reported. A 10-foot cactus could grow to be 100 years old, McGinnis told KOLD.

“It was killed in a senseless act of vandalism,” McGinnis told the news outlet.

This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Iconic saguaro cactuses hacked up in ‘senseless act of vandalism,’ Arizona park says."