Saguaro Cactus Gets Thumbs Up for National Park Status in Arizona : Environment: Clinton signs bill redesignating the national monument near Tucson. Funds will be set aside to buy land as a buffer against suburbs.

The saguaro cactus, stately sentinel of the Old West, has won a new level of recognition and protection.

Its preserve in Tucson since early this century--Saguaro National Monument--has been elevated to national park status.

President Clinton signed legislation in October redesignating it as Saguaro National Park and setting aside money to buy land as a buffer against encroaching suburbs.

Environmentalists are less excited about the new name than about the authorization to add 3,460 acres to the park, which consists of 114,659 acres in separate tracts on opposite sides of the city.

“This will provide protection of the wildlife habitat and critical open spaces,” said Steve Anderson of the Pima Trails Assn. “Development has been going crazy in that immediate vicinity.”

The saguaro (pronounced sa-HWAH-ro) is found only in the Sonoran Desert, which stretches from northern Mexico to central Arizona and includes the southeastern tip of California.

The cacti can live 200 years or longer. They grow 50 feet tall, sprout their first arms after 50 to 70 years and sometimes grow as many as four dozen arms. The cacti, second-largest in the world after Mexico’s cardon, weigh tons, most of which is water. The saguaro isn’t endangered, but the species is afflicted with a mysterious disease that’s being studied in the park.

About 2.4 million visitors a year drive or bike the park’s scenic loop roads or hike its many trails. Tohono O’odham Indians set up camp here in July and August to harvest the saguaro fruit for making syrup, jam, and a wine used in ceremonies to call down the desert rains.

The park designation is a testament to the diversity of plant life in the area’s six life zones. They range from the saguaros found along the desert floor to grasslands to pine, aspen and fir forest more than a vertical mile up in the mountains the park encompasses.

Saguaro is the nation’s 52nd national park and Arizona’s third, after the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest.

There are few operational differences between a monument and a park; both are managed by the National Park Service. The park designation is reserved for areas of special significance and must be created by an act of Congress as opposed to executive order.

Park Supt. Doug Morris says he doubts the change will significantly increase the number of visitors, and some business leaders agree.

“People who go there will go whether it’s a national monument or a national park,” said Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce spokesman Tom Collier. “People will go there because they’re interested in the uniqueness of the ecology and the flora and fauna.”