The Greening of Arizona

Irene Sturgis, an asthmatic widow from Philadelphia, moved to Tucson, Ariz., 20 years ago on the advice of her doctor. "It was the best thing I ever did," she recalls. "The air was clean and dry, and for the first time in memory I did not have to worry about oxygen bottles and aspirators." Those were the good old days when Tucson's population was 45,000. Now it stands at 263,000, and Mrs. Sturgis, 71, is choking and sneezing again. The reason: the greening of Arizona.

Most of the newcomers who flocked to settle in the state believed that if a desert town was a good place to live, an oasis was even better. So they planted and watered thick lawns of Bermuda grass, neat privet hedges and thousands of shade trees, notably the mulberry. As a result, Arizona's cities now seem almost as lush and lovely as any East Coast suburb.

Trouble is, they now have the vegetative fragrance of Eastern suburbs too. Unlike Arizona's native vegetation, which has sticky grains of pollen that are carried from plant to plant by birds, insects and bats, the imported plants produce the kind of pollen that is easily detached and carried by the wind. Consequently, the Arizona air is laden with pollen pollution. "The desert is a wonderful place for wind pollination because the wind blows most of the year and the growing season lasts most of the year," says University of Arizona Geoscientist Dr. Allen M. Solomon. "We're just about at the pollen levels in the East."

For those with allergies, the change is almost catastrophic. "In March, this office just pours over with people having trouble with mulberry pollen," says Tucson Dr. L. Winston Martin. Adds Allergist Dr. Rueben Wagelie: "Bermuda grass thrives in this climate and gives off pollen from February to October." Although the doctors are struggling to alleviate their patients' distress, the only real cure is the one Mrs. Sturgis chose in 1953--flight. The plight of the allergy sufferers arouses little compassion in Jack Taylor, owner of three thriving Tucson nurseries: "The pollen isn't any problem at all to 99% of the people here," he says. "The other 1% can go live in a remote mountain village."

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