A Note from Executive Director Jamie Maslyn Larson

Dear Tohono Chul Community,

I have been feeling reflective as we approach our 40th anniversary next year. Since Dick and Jean Wilson began laying out Tohono Chul’s trails in the 1980s, the world has changed tremendously. Their vision for Tohono Chul was to “keep something natural in the middle of all the development so that people could come easily for a few hours.” However, the Wilsons could not have predicted the impact that climate change and prolonged drought would have on our gardens.

Knowing how much you rely on Tohono Chul’s gardens for your well-being, happiness, and sense of community, we must find ways to adapt to these challenges and ensure that our gardens remain a haven for you and for future generations. With your support, we have already achieved so much!

Growing Towards a Sustainable Future

  • Tree Succession Plan: We have fewer shade trees today because of the prolonged 23-year drought and more intense storms. So we embarked on a comprehensive tree succession plan which will ensure that our trees are properly managed, identifies new tree plantings, and assesses our trees for climate risk. We have planted several large sized trees in key areas, inventoried and assessed 75% of our tree collection and our propagations department is growing over 250 desert trees for future tree planting.
  • Water Conservation: Tohono Chul’s antiquated, manually operated system requires a total overhaul, transitioning to modern, app-based clocks and meters, rewiring valves to the clocks, and changing out hundreds of sprinklers to low-water drip emitters. To date, approximately 50% of our irrigation is now upgraded to this water-wise and manual-labor free system.
  • Dark Skies Compliance: We’ve completed the installation of new lighting so that we meet Dark Skies regulations. This not only reduces light pollution but also enhances nighttime beauty, allowing visitors to enjoy the gardens under the stars while preserving our nocturnal wildlife’s natural habitat.
View from Tohono Chul’s South Loop Trail in November 2024, featuring a vibrant expanse of native cacti and desert plant life.

Enhancing the Garden Experience

  • Children’s Garden: We’ve refreshed all garden beds with new plantings, removed invasive species, and improved irrigation lines. This creates a more engaging and sustainable space for our younger visitors and their families.
  • Desert Palm Oasis and Mesquite Bosque: We’ve removed dead and invasive plants and have introduced new native species, revitalizing these areas for a more immersive desert experience.
  • Queen of the Night Cacti Cultivation: We’re currently growing over 300 Queen of the Night (Peniocereus greggii) cacti. Many of these will be planted throughout the gardens, promising even more spectacular Bloom Night events in the future.
  • Plant Propagation: Our nursery team propagated over 1,200 plants in preparation for our Fall Plant Sale that took place in October. This effort supports our mission of promoting desert-adapted plants and provides you with the opportunity to grow a piece of Tohono Chul at your own home.
Tracey Till, Propagation Coordinator, proudly holds a homegrown cactus in Tohono Chul’s North Propagation House.

A Shared Vision for Tomorrow

In a world that’s constantly changing, we believe that places like Tohono Chul are more important than ever. We all need somewhere to escape, to breathe, to reconnect with nature and each other. Our hope is that when you walk through our garden, you feel a sense of peace and belonging—a place where the outside world’s worries simply melt away.

Thanks for being a part of our family and for helping us create a haven of beauty and community in the heart of the desert. We invite you to make plans to visit your desert oasis for a few hours, just as the Wilsons dreamed for us.

With heartfelt gratitude, | Con sincera gratitude,

Jamie Maslyn Larson
Executive Director
jamie@tohonochul.org

A Note from Executive Director Jamie Maslyn Larson

Dear Tohono Chul Family, 

The heat is on! Seems like eons ago when we had Tohono Chul’s annual Member’s Reception in a much cooler April. Hundreds of members came to enjoy music, stroll the gardens, and learn about our recent initiatives and programs. It was a pleasure to spend time with you! We are moved by your unwavering support of our mission and enjoyment of our vibrant desert oasis. 

A Look Back

At the 2023 Members Reception, I shared the “State of the Gardens Address” —it sounds serious, and it is. Our goal of the speech was to connect more deeply with you, share some specific goals for the next year and tout some of our accomplishments since I joined as Executive Director. Here are some of our accomplishments in the last 18 months: 

Jamie Maslyn Larson during the 2023 Members’ Reception. By Nikita Marie Photography.

Team Building

We want to make Tohono Chul the best place to work in Tucson! Our progress includes filling essential roles, including a full time Director of Finance, Director of Strategic Growth, Human Resource Manager, gardens, marketing, events, philanthropy, propagation, and facilities. We reinstated monthly staff meetings, created goals, and now support our team’s growth with professional development funding.  

New Programming

You understand how amazing Tohono Chul is, and each day more and more people are becoming invested by becoming members. New programs like Chillin at the Chul and Children’s Museum Oro Valley have increased visitation by children by ten times from one year ago! And our membership has increased by 25% in one year, to over 9,500 households. 

Renewing our Gardens
As patrons of Tohono Chul, I know you have a reverence for our beautiful gardens. You also know that gardens are dynamic, living systems that are constantly changing and need tending. We are making our gardens more lovely to experience every day—with arbor care, new relaxing seating, and our first renovation project: Spanish Colonial Garden! Come November, this garden will showcase our beloved Ironwood trees, have 100% native Sonoran Desert species, and elevated water conservation and dark skies compliant lighting. 

Becoming Good Ancestors
Ralph Nader once stated, “we must strive to become good ancestors.” It is our responsibility to make Tohono Chul ready for its future stewards and preserve it for them as well as us. And we cannot do that without thinking about the impacts from climate change. Whether it’s the work to conserve water or climate risk assessment of our tree collection, we are taking major steps to become a model of what the Wilson’s called for us to be: “wise stewards of the Sonoran Desert.” 

Images from the 2023 Members’ Reception. By Nikita Marie Photography.

How do you value Tohono Chul?

Tohono Chul is a true gift to our community, thanks to the incredible vision and generosity of Dick and Jean Wilson who donated Tohono Chul to us. We asked our friends at Long Realty to help us quantify the monetary value of Tohono Chul in today’s dollars: a jaw dropping $40-50 million! But to me, and I know to you, Tohono Chul is priceless and one of a kind. We are a part of what makes Tucson and Oro Valley great places to live.  

Visitors wander the Gardens of Tohono Chul, Spring 2023

Others feel the value of Tohono Chul in their lives as well. Last year, we saw our highest attendance in over 20 years! Our gardens, galleries, bistro, educational and public programs have folks returning again and again, connecting with a community who understand and appreciate the value that our garden provides.  

Please share with us what you value about Tohono Chul! Jot me an email at executivedirector@tohonochul.org. We are incredibly excited for the future and grateful for your support. Thank you for being part of our community. 

Best Regards, 

Jamie Maslyn Larson 
Executive Director

Executive Update For You from Jamie Maslyn Larson

Dear Tohono Chul Family,

How time flies! It has been almost four months since you welcomed me as Tohono Chul’s Executive Director. The last time I wrote, I was just two weeks into my role. You have taught me so much.

While our gardens were bursting with beauty this spring, they also are in need of some TLC and a plan for their future. The Sonoran Desert climate can seem harsh for living things, but our plants and animals have evolved over millennia and adapted to this place. However, the last two summers were exceedingly tough and topped-off a 20-year drought. In 2020 we faced an extreme drought, and 2021 was the third wettest on record. A microburst at the end of August 2021 severely damaged over 60 trees and shrubs. Our 49 acres of gardens and grounds are an ecological system that is interdependent and complex. Therefore, planning the garden’s evolution to recover and improve will involve careful inventory, analysis, planning and design.

We are establishing a volunteer/staff team who will soon begin to inventory every tree, cactus, shrub, succulent and perennial gardens in the approximately 6.5 acre “core garden area”—from the entrance to the Education Center. This inventory will map and record the health, age, species, size, and location of every plant. This is an essential first step to determining our future plant collection and gardens. We have found similar plant inventories from 1994/95, so we will be able to compare to our plantings from 28 years ago! This project is expected to take many months and hundreds of hours to execute. We would love your support of this incredibly important project with your time or with a gift!

Community is everything. Without you, Tohono Chul would not meet the Wilson’s vision for people to “come easily for a few hours.” This spring, visitation has been the busiest in Tohono Chul’s history. Building from this success, we are testing new programs that expand experiences in our historically slower months and reaching out to others in Tucson that may not be aware of all Tohono Chul has to offer. This summer’s programming is geared to locals, with:

▸ Chillin at the Chul which extends our weekend evening hours with music, food and libations.

▸ Reviving children’s programming with our Desert Discovery Days and new partnership with Tucson Children’s Museum of Oro Valley on Saturdays with Nature Niños.

▸ If you are an early riser, visit us in the mornings as we are opening one hour early (7am) for garden strolls and the Garden Bistro is offering coffee, cool drinks, and light food in the Spanish Colonial Garden.

Throughout this summer, we will be asking for your feedback so we can modify and tweak our outreach and programs as we move through the next year. Please keep your ideas coming for what you’d like to see here— fall is right around the corner!

I am still pinching myself over the exciting (and humbling) role of being your Executive Director. Each day, I am grateful for your support of the gardens and our team. I hope that I can continue to count on you to give your input, to dream big for our future, and to welcome all into our desert gardens. If you are feeling inspired by our summer initiatives, please come visit and share your feedback! Or stop to say “hi” to our amazing team when you visit next.

Thank you for visiting and for sharing your thoughts about our beautiful desert oasis.

Warm regards,

Jamie Maslyn Larson FASLA
Executive Director