Stephanie Sy:
To counter the loss, the Tucson Audubon Society is planting young saguaros, positioning them near so-called nurse plants, which act as shade and shields.
Jonathan Horst says saguaros are a keystone species.
Jonathan Horst, Director of Conservation and Research, Tucson Audubon Society: We have got 14 species of birds, multiple species of bats, hundreds of species of insects, rodents, javelina, foxes. Everything is chowing down on the fruits when they drop.
Without saguaros, in a lot of ways, giant pieces of the Sonoran Desert ecosystem just implode.
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