Pima Prickly Park by Marilyn Moore

Pima Prickly Park

 An educational joint venture between the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society and Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation.

On May 16, 2013, Ms. Jessie Byrd, MLA, ASLA, kept the attention of Rotarians with her fast-paced program focusing on the development of the new Pima Prickly Park.  With a master’s degree in landscape architecture, this native Tucsonan specializes in cactus gardens, landscape retrofitting, and smart water use.  She taught us a great deal about this wonderful volunteer organization, its successful partnership with local organizations, and the development of a new public park for our community.

Jessie’s love of the plants and animals of our area came out as she explained more about the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society. The society has more than one thousand (1000) members and is the largest in the United States.  Members enjoy researching, sharing information, and ‘working’ with cactus and succulents.  Their goal of creating a demonstration garden to illustrate the environmental, social, and economic value of such plants has materialized through the creation of the Pima Prickly Park.  “This educational joint venture between the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society and Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation (NRPR) was formalized in August, 2011, with build-out and improvements planned for many years to come.”

Although described as a work in progress, the park already boasts a parking area, an office building, some amazing paths, and several specialty areas for public enjoyment – the Hummingbird Garden (created with Audubon Society volunteers),  Saguarohenge  (recently featured in the news), Nurse Trees which protect developing Saguaro growth, and more demonstration gardens and Cholla Forest Maze.  Jessie’s description of the accomplishments of volunteers, as well as the special projects requiring equipment and expertise from their allies, was impressive.   

The park is home to quite a collection of wildlife - Bobcats, coyotes, javelin, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, birds, toads, snakes (some rattlesnakes), butterflies and various insects.

A lively Question-and-Answer session followed with everyone learning more.  Thanks, Jessie!

Make plans to visit:   Pima Prickly Park - Open dawn to dusk, free to the public.
Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation
www.pimapricklypark.org      
park@tucsoncactus.org
 (520) 256-2447

Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society
www.tucsoncactus.org

Since its inception in 1999, this organization accounts for the following accomplishments:
1,645 people participate as volunteers, accomplishing 21,835 hours of work; salvaging 63,420 native plants from more than 5,205 acres.