Botanic Briefings

DATES: May 5
TIMES: 12-1 p.m.
PRICE: Included in Garden Admission or Membership

Join us for monthly informative presentations from Garden staff and other local experts. Dorrance Hall

May 5: Citizen Science Monitoring of Urban Saguarow Health: The Saguaro Monitoring Program within the Desert Botanical Garden’s Saguaro Initiatives

• Speaker: Billie Fraser, ASU Masters of Science Program 

The Saguaro Census, organized by the Desert Botanical Garden, provides an important snapshot of saguaro distribution across the Phoenix Valley. However, long-term monitoring is essential to strengthen these data and better understand changes in plant health and survival over time. To address this need, the Saguaro Monitoring Program was developed as a student- and volunteer-led initiative in which community members are assigned a plot of approximately 20 saguaros that they visit regularly to document plant health and condition. As the project completes its first year of surveys, results from the initial monitoring effort will be presented, along with a discussion of the benefits and challenges of using citizen science to monitor urban plant populations.