If you were to backpack deep into the heart of the Superstition Mountain Wilderness area you might come upon the surviving remnants of a 300-tree apple orchard that once supplied the inhabitants of the now crumbling Reevis Ranch. Search the overgrown brush near the desert oasis called Quitobaquito, located along the U.S.-Mexico border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and you might come upon fig trees and pomegranates that fed hardy explorers traveling the infamous Camino del Diablo – the Devil’s Road – that led through the desert to California.

These and other fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, cactus and agave varieties that have been used by Native Americans, cowboys, miners, Spanish missionaries, Mormon and Mexican pioneers and other ethnic settlers since before World War II are the objects of a conservation program designed to recognize and honor the useful folk varieties of trees and shrubs originally planted or descended from plants established prior to WWII but still growing in the southwest.

Beginning in the early 1990’s, over 100 historic orchards or remnants have been identified in Arizona and Utah. Though originally designed to honor and bring attention to these heirlooms, recent program efforts include propagation, promotion and conservation. Established in 2005 at the Conservation Farm, the NS/S Heirloom Orchard currently consists of 25 young fig, quince, and white-seeded pomegranate trees donated through a partnership with the Kino Heritage Tree Project, a project designed to replant historically, culturally and botanically appropriate varieties of the fruit trees originally introduced to the New World by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries to the southwest. Plans to expand the number and type of perennial heirloom trees conserved in the orchard are well underway!