Columnist Susan Snyder: Crusader boasts a prickly plan

Thursday, April 7, 2005 | 8:16 a.m.

Free to good home: Cactus.

A whole mess of 'em -- beaver tail, cotton-top barrel, fire barrel, cholla, hedgehog and pincushion varieties.

Must be planted in a public place -- a park or other open space.

Call Mark Pedigo. Soon. These cacti soon will fall under the bulldozer's blade.

For four months the 48-year-old purchaser for Wolfgang Puck's restaurants has been on a personal crusade to dig up and save cacti from land scheduled to undergo development -- much of it land auctioned by the Bureau of Land Management.

"You go out and look at these cactuses, and it's quiet and you think, 'Wow. It is really beautiful out here.' And in less than two months, it is all going to be cleared," Pedigo said Wednesday morning.

"I go out every day that I can get a spare moment," he added. "I'm doing the best I can."

And he's doing it legally. Pedigo has signed permits from the developers and pays $2 to tag each cactus he extracts from private land, as required by the Nevada Division of Forestry.

"I've probably removed about 300 since November," he said. "I'm paying for everything myself and am about bankrupt. But I'm not complaining. That's just part of the deal."

Pedigo is a licensed nurseryman and master gardener who also runs a small business called Las Vegas Home and Garden. He began his rescue effort last fall when he saw "40 or 50 cotton-tops in the way of a tractor" in Wineridge, a new development near State Route 160 and El Capitan Way.

He obtained permission to store the salvaged cacti at the UNR master gardener's orchard in the extreme northwest valley off Decatur Boulevard. He had hoped to donate the extracted plants to parks, but has found it difficult to find takers within the agencies.

Officials may fear the plants have been taken illegally, which they haven't, Pedigo said. Or maybe they're suspicious because he will not sell them. Homeowners likely would pay handsomely, but Pedigo wants them on public land.

"I want to put them in a place where all people can enjoy them," Pedigo said. "It would be a temptation (to sell them), but I want to keep the ethics and integrity of the project intact."

Right now, Pedigo is racing the calendar as he tries to save hundreds of cactus from a 1,200-acre tract being developed into home sites off Hualapai Way, north of the northern Las Vegas Beltway. Bulldozers are to begin clearing the area between Grand Teton Drive and Deer Springs Way within 90 days, he said.

"It's got some pockets of cactus up there that will just knock your socks off," Pedigo said. "Some of these are over 100 years old. They're 6 and 8 feet tall."

A plant that can thrive in the desert for 100 years deserves to be around for a few more generations to enjoy, even if it's in a state park.

"Someday, somebody can come along with their kids and say, 'Look at this. It's been growing here a long time,' " Pedigo said.

Pedigo works mostly alone and would welcome help from other volunteers. The loan of some heavy equipment also would make the work go faster.

"Some of these cactus weigh 300 and 400 pounds," he said. "I have a pick and a shovel."

If you'd like to help, call 809-8451 or e-mail markpedigo@cox.net.