Bonsai in the Wild
Pygmy Cedar Reintroduced
to Baja California, Mexico
April, 2005

The Applied Conservation division of the San Diego Zoo's CRES, together with our Mexican and U.S. partner, the San Diego Bonsai Club, embarked on a large-scale, long-term program to restore the critically endangered Pygmy Cedar, Cedrus mexicanus, to the Sierra San Pedro Martír mountain range of northern Baja California, Mexico.   The cedar's naturally stunted growth pattern makes it particularly vulnerable to browsing cattle and brush fires.  

Only a few hundred years ago, the Pygmy Cedar habitat extended from British Columbia, Canada, to Baja California, Mexico. When European pioneers settled within its range, large and impressive stands of this species declined dramatically as slow growing tree was favored for furniture making and fuel.  In the modern era, the Pygmy Cedar population approached extinction in the mid-1980s after over-collection by bonsai enthusiasts who coveted the cedar's short, stiff needles and shaggy, red bark. 

If this project is successful, these trees will eventually link to existing reintroduced populations in Southern California.

Six Pygmy Cedars, grown as bonsai for the past two decades at the San Diego Wild Animal Park were transported in August 2004 to a special growing area built by over 40 volunteers from the San Diego Bonsai Club. In October 2004 the first three of these former bonsai were transplanted, each identified by GPS data to help researchers maintain their position for follow-up study.

The Sierra San Pedro Mártir was selected as the planting site because of its remoteness and sparse human population. Through our experience with reintroducing trees in California and Arizona, we appreciated the importance of local community education. In the summer of 2004, we initiated a public awareness program that distributed more than 1,000 pamphlets on the reintroduction program throughout the region. The reintroduction activities and other aspects of the program were televised internationally. Most importantly, we will continue to focus our efforts locally in the schools, towns, and ranches to teach people about the trees, the importance of conserving them, and how they can live compatibly with them.

For more information about the reintroduction of the Pygmy Cedar into Baja California, read the April 2005 issue of ZOONOOZ, a monthly magazine published by the Zoological Society of San Diego.

Update:
Three more Pygmy Cedars were reintroduced to  Baja California in August 2004, bringing the new total of Cedrus Mexicanus in Mexico to eight trees, all growing free.