The University of Arizona Alumnus / Summer 2008
Saving El Pitayal
Economic Survival in the Organ-Pipe Cactus Forest
by Carolyn Niethammer
photos by David Yetman
Organ-pipe cactus fruits are ping-pong ball-size globes of red, juicy lusciousness.
The tall, columnar cactus, with its delicious fruits, is the most important plant to the Seris and the Mayos, both indigenous groups living in southern Sonora, the Mexican state just south of the border. They also use its wood for fire and construction.
The cactus, called pitaya in Spanish, produces fruits from early July to the end of September. Each plant produces up to 100 fruits, some, even more. The Mayos use the fresh fruit and pulp to make syrup, wine, and tamales. They also sell them in Navajoa, which at 30 miles away is the closest city. The small amount of cash this brings in is important to their family economics.
When David Yetman, a research scientist at the UA Southwest Center and host of the television series The Desert Speaks, began plant studies in the Rio Mayo area of southern Sonora in the 1990s, he learned that much of the organ-pipe cactus forest was being cleared away for shrimp farms and agricultural uses like planting buffel grass for cattle grazing.
"The organ-pipes were being removed with no consideration for their value," he says. "In Mexico, land in its wild state is virtually worthless — this is just part of the cultural ethos. Already, more than half of what was probably 100 square miles of el pitayal (the organ-pipe forest) has been destroyed. But this section of the coastal thorn-scrub area is one of the most varied ecological zones, with about 250 species of plants. Intact, the forest serves the interests of a lot of people. Cleared, the land has value to only a small number of people."
And it isn't just people who have relied on the organ-pipe fruits. Yetman, who also spent several years as executive director of the Tucson Audubon Society, was thinking about birds as well. "It seems quite probable that the decrease in songbirds in Arizona is related to the destruction in el pitayal. The Rio Mayo area is a major corridor for bats and birds on their north-south migration, and if they don't have any food along the way, they can't migrate."
So the situation, as Yetman saw it, was complex. First, the organ-pipe forests needed to be preserved so there would be a reserve of native vegetation. Research was needed to test a number of assumptions about the cactus and other regional species. And he also was interested in economic development for the Mayos, helping them earn more badly needed cash through adding value to the raw pitaya fruits.
The first step was to fence some of the land to keep out cattle. "We wanted to make sure we had a reserve of truly native vegetation," Yetman explains. "Cattle destroy the understory of grasses and shrubs, and we wanted to see if it would come back."
The land in the area is communally owned, so one of Yetman's Mayo friends, Vicente Tajia, suggested they approach the Masiaca Indigenous Community, a group of Mayos who controlled a large block of land. With the understanding that they would be compensated for the loss of grazing for their livestock, a group of community members agreed to the installation of the fence because, among other things, they knew that the increased vegetation would make for better deer habitat. "The deer could get over the fence and the Mayos just love venison," Yetman adds. So in 1999, 62? acres were fenced through a grant provided by the Tucson
Audubon Society.
The project was so successful that in 2001 another group of Mayos from the Masiaca Community approached Yetman and offered about 500 acres for fencing, which was accomplished with help from the Robideaux and Wallace Research Foundations, which also compensated the community for grazing loss. Several research projects were initiated to monitor what would happen to the protected land.
Next, for the economic development projects, Yetman chose a village of about 600 people near a dense stand of organ-pipes. Finding a way to help the Masiacas sell more pitaya products was an easy decision for Yetman, who loves the fruits himself. "I've eaten more than 40 in one day and could have eaten more," he confesses. "They are very nutritious and utterly satisfying."
The difficulty in marketing is that once picked and peeled, organ-pipe fruits spoil within 24 hours, which means that the sellers have to move quickly to get them to market in Navajoa. If they were able to process the pitayas into fruit leather and marmalade, the reasoning went, the products would store better.
"We held a couple of workshops and paid about a dozen women to come and learn how to process the fruits," Yetman says. "Three took it up."
There's been a steep learning curve. The fruit-leather project started with blenders and solar driers, but the fruits didn't dry fast enough, so the group had to switch to electric dehydrators. They also discovered that adding a little mango pulp to the mixture improved the texture of the fruit leather.
Making marmalade is more complicated because it demands fastidious sanitation. And the Masiacas are reluctant to take on the expense of purchasing sugar, but one family is simply boiling the fruit down and packing it in jars that they refrigerate. One difficulty is that the Mayos generally cook over wood and many can't afford to spend scarce cash for propane. Marmalade cooked over a wood fire has a smoky taste that some people don't like.
So far, all the products have found a ready market in Mexico. But anyone on the American side of the border wishing to taste the organ-pipe fruit, marmalade, or fruit leather will have to travel to Sonora or venture down to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near the Mexican border at Lukeville, the only large stand of organ-pipes in the United States. Numerous regulations on the export of nondomesticated cactus products from Mexico, along with U.S. food and drug requirements, make it impossible to import the products to the States. (To pick even one fruit in the national monument, you must get permission from a ranger.)
As the projects began, Yetman knew the task would not be easy. "The impediments are enormous," he admits. After nine years, the project has had many successes and some disappointments. The understory in the fenced areas has come back in thick growth, making it almost impenetrable in spots. The deer have increased. The researchers had assumed that with the cattle gone, more baby organ-pipes would appear, but that has not been the case. They also learned that the posts for the fencing must be made of wood; metal posts are so valuable locally that they've been uprooted and stolen.
Yetman, renowned for exploring remote and untrammeled parts of the globe (and taking thousands of television viewers with him), originally hoped that the
revitalized natural areas would draw tourists, particularly birders.
"In October and November, there is no more ethereally beautiful place to be," he says. But it turns out that the area is too remote, and people would rather watch Yetman bump along a dirt road on television from the comfort of their armchairs than actually endure the dust, heat, and long drive to see the place for themselves.
Yetman has tried to lure several development specialists to stay with the Masiacas to help speed up the project, particularly to help with marketing as the Mayos are rather shy and reluctant to sell their wares. But during the harvest season, the temperatures can reach 104 degrees, with 80 percent humidity. Add to that the flies from the pigs, cows, goats, and burros that range freely, and most grad students and development experts look for work elsewhere.
But the most difficult problem — one beyond human intervention — is the 12-year drought that has resulted in below-average pitaya harvests for years.
"The drought in southern Sonora is really ghastly," Yetman says. "The scarcity of extra fruit makes it unfeasible for more people to get involved. But in two other towns families are ready to get going as soon as enough fruit is available."
You can read more about organ-pipe cactus in David Yetman's lavishly illustrated book Organ Pipe Cactus (University of Arizona Press, 2006).
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