JUDY WOODRUFF: Here in the
United States, the national
parks belong to all of us.
But as Tyler Fingert from the
Cronkite School of Journalism
at Arizona State University
reports, that shared treasure is
at risk of being chipped away.
TYLER FINGERT: Across the
desert landscape, their
silhouette is unmistakable.
At Saguaro National Park near
Tucson, cacti are the main
attraction for hikers like Jean
Gascho.
JEAN GASCHO, Hiker: You feel
like you're so much a part of
the desert and just surrounded
by these beautiful cactuses.
TYLER FINGERT: But the
park's namesake cactus is
facing a threat from thieves.
KEVIN DAHL, National Parks
Conservation Association:
It's ironic that we
set aside great places
like our Saguaro National Park,
and people think that they
can just come take the iconic
cactus for which
the park is named.
TYLER FINGERT: Kevin Dahl
works with the National Parks
Conservation Association.
He says being a cactus
thief can be lucrative.
Each one can fetch
$100 or more per foot.
KEVIN DAHL: It's absolute
robbery, and it's absolute
criminal activity.
And it's for profit.
A mature saguaro in a landscape
adds something to the value of
the home or the business that's
for sale or rent.
TYLER FINGERT: Across the
country, other parks are
facing a similar threat.
Last year, Death Valley National
Park says some visitors walked
off with fossil footprints.
At Joshua Tree National
Park, people have stolen
artifacts from old mines.
BILL PARKER, Petrified Forest
National Park: Some parks
deal with people taking rocks.
Some parks deal with people
taking plants and animals.
Places like Mount Rushmore,
people take the chips that
were created when they created
the sculptures.
TYLER FINGERT: Bill
Parker leads the Natural
and Cultural Resources
Team at Petrified Forest
National Park.
Here, he says, visitors take
small pieces of petrified wood.
BILL PARKER: Some people do
still take wood, and we catch
them and give them tickets.
But whole areas aren't
being stripped clean, as
was thought in the past.
TYLER FINGERT: The park
turned to photography to
test the theory, taking
century-old photographs
and comparing them to
recent photos taken
at the same location.
And the results, says Parker,
if you look at photos from
today, most of the artifacts
are still intact.
BILL PARKER: It's a souvenir
that people want, but one thing
the photography project has
showed us is that most
people do the right thing.
TYLER FINGERT: Some people have
even returned stolen wood, and
it ends up here, often referred
to as the conscience pile.
Back in Saguaro National Park,
to help make sure theft doesn't
happen, the National Park
Service has turned to
technology, putting
tiny passive trackers
in some of their cacti,
allowing them to identify
ones stolen from the park.
Of their roughly 1.9 million
saguaro cacti, only 1,000 of
them are tagged, the ones close
to roads and the smaller cacti,
those most likely to be stolen.
The trackers, which are
similar to pet microchips,
don't actively broadcast
a signal, so if a
cactus goes missing, Ray O'Neil,
Saguaro National Park's chief
ranger, says the only way to
know if it's from the park
is to scan it using a reader,
making the trackers more symbol
than substance.
RAY O'NEIL, Chief Ranger,
Saguaro National Park:
Our biggest hope is
that it's a deterrent,
that people recognize that if
they steal cacti from Saguaro
National Park, that there's a
chance that we're going to
be able to identify that
cactus came from the park.
TYLER FINGERT: While technology
is helping to track natural
resources, education is still
a huge part of keeping
parks pristine.
And Kevin Dahl wants to make
sure that visitors understand
the national parks are saved by
the people for the people.
KEVIN DAHL: It's a selfish
thing when someone does an act
of vandalism or steal something
from a national park.
And it's selfish and it's an
act against the American public.
TYLER FINGERT: Pieces
of American history
being taken from some of
America's most treasured
land.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm
Tyler Fingert at Saguaro
National Park in Arizona.