Emerging Desert Landscape in TucsonE. Gregory McPherson; Renee A. HaipGeographical Review, Vol. 79, No. 4. (Oct., 1989), pp. 435-449.Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7428%28198910%2979%3A4%3C435%3AEDLIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-VGeographical Review is currently published by American Geographical Society.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/ags.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academicjournals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]://www.jstor.orgFri Feb 29 13:28:29 2008EMERGING DESERT LANDSCAPE IN TUCSON* E. GREGORY McPHERSON and RENEE A. HAIP ABSTRACT. Early in the twentieth century thousands of trees were planted in Tucson, and the city became an arborescent oasis. By the midcentury population boom planting had declined. Mechanical cooling reduced the need for tree shade, and golf and tennis replaced gardening as the preferred leisure-time activities. Perceived water shortage has spurred the adoption of a new desert landscape marked by stone mulch and arid-adaptive plants. This landscape may have precedence for other cities similarly facing water shortages. IN 1875 there were only three trees growing in Tucson, Arizona.' By 1910 thousands of exotic trees had been planted in an effort to transform the desert city into a garden spot of the Southwest. An equally dramatic change is now occurring throughout the city: the lush green vegetation of trees is being replaced by desert landscaping. The transition from a desert city to a garden city and the current return to the former reflect shifting attitudes of the populace toward the environment. What compelled this change, and what are the implications for urban dwellers in the future? Is the emergence of desert landscaping another example of history repeating itself, or does it express an evolutionary process that points to a more sym-biotic relationship between man and nature? In this essay we examine urban vegetative changes in Tucson with the goal of answering these questions. We focus specifically on the geographical processes and natural-resource constraints that influenced attitudes toward tree planting and house land-scaping during the past century. Urban vegetation reflects both the cultural milieu and the physical en-vir~nment.~In Tucson vegetative patterns are linked to climate, water re-sources, cultural heritage, urban morphology, and the values of the popu-lation. Tucson is located in a Sonoran Desert basin surrounded by four mountain ranges. Average annual rainfall of eleven inches arrives during two seasons, summer and winter. The seasonal rains and hot, arid climate support abundant and diverse native desert flora that include many arboreal species such as saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea), paloverde (Cercidium mi-crophyllum), and mesquite (Prosopis velutina). Many plants from temperate and humid subtropical climates thrive with consistent irrigation. Hispanic *We are grateful for the comments on an early draft of this article from Donald Bufkin, Bernard Fontana, Thomas Sheridan, David Taylor, Mark McPherson, and Raymond Turner. This research is a contribution to the Hatch project, entitled Impacts of Urban Forests in Arizona, sponsored by the University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. Arizona Daily Star, 25 October 1908. 'G. G. Whitney and S. D. Adams, Man as Maker of New Plant Communities, Journal of Applied Ecology 17 (1980):431-448. DR.MCPHERSONis an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, where MS. HAIPis a graduate student in landscape architecture.436 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW FIG. 1-Space for street trees was scarce along Meyer Street circa 1875. (Reproduced courtesy of the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson) culture is an important aspect of the city's heritage, because nonnative Tucson originated as a Spanish settlement along the Santa Cruz River in 1775. As in many other western American cities, the horizontal, low-density devel- opmental pattern reflects the post-World War I1 population expansion and the importance of the automobile as the dominant mode of transportation. The population of the city tripled between 1950 and 1970. Currently more than 650,000 people live in metropolitan Tucson, and the population is projected to reach 1.6 million by 2025.3 The portion of Arizona in which Tucson is located became part of the United States through the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. By then the vegetation of the small town was a mixture of native American species and Spanish- Mexican imports. After the Gadsden Purchase Anglo settlers arrived, and the adobe townscape expanded. The form of this Spanish-Mexican townscape consisted of buildings with facades directly on the narrow streets so that little space was available for trees (Fig. 1). The central portions of blocks were left vacant for domestic animals and gardens. Plants were located in interior courtyards similar to the mission style. Although shade trees were not abun- dant, plantings did include chinaberry (Melia azedarach), Mexican paloverde (Parkinsonia aculeata), Arizona ash (Fraxinus velutina), and peppertree (Schinus FAG Population Handbook: 1987, Pima Association of Governments, Tucson, 1987.TUCSON LANDSCAPE FIG.2-Civic leaders like Sam Hughes and Hiram Stevens were among the first to plant trees in Tucson circa 1875. (Reproduced