RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) – A Rio Rancho neighborhood is mourning the loss of a massive Joshua Tree after Saturday’s storm destroyed it. “We moved into this house in the 1990s and we just referred to it as the big cactus,” said homeowner Rusty Dils. “The house was built around 70 and we’re the second owner, the previous owner I assume planted it in the very early seventies.”
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It was the first thing you’d see when driving by Rusty Dils’ Rio Rancho home. “Last week, I happened to look at it and it was 40×40. 40 feet tall by 40 feet wide and beautiful, evenly proportioned,” said Dils.
A massive Joshua Tree which is part of the yucca family. “When we figured out what it was we were on a trip to California, middle of California with our five kids in the Aerostar and we were stuck behind a train in the middle of the Mojave Desert and we got out and wandered around for a bit and we saw a bunch of trees that looked like ours,” said Dils.
Unfortunately, after this weekend’s intense storm, the view is a lot different. “I saw the big head of it there and I thought that can’t be good there’s no way I should be seeing that,” said Dils. “It’s uprooted you can see it just pulled all the ground up it just the wind and the rain the combination, a perfect storm.”
The tree lifted and spit in two covering Dils’ lawn. “My guesstimate is this thing weighs 5-thousand pounds,” said Dils.
Tuesday morning, he started what will be a long clean up process as he cuts the tree into pieces to eventually take to the dump. “I’ve talked to hundreds of people over the years that have stopped and admired it and we’re very sad that it went down,” said Dils.
While he says it’s heartbreaking to see it like this, it might not be the end. “As I was cutting one branch off a little while ago I was thinking you know I might just dig a two-foot hole and plant that over there there’s a nice place for it and give her a try,” said Dils.
Then, maybe it could return to what it once was. “It would probably take 25-30 years to get to a big size and I’m not a spring chicken but I have kids so maybe they can appreciate it,” said Dils.
Dils’ says he’s considering letting other people in the neighborhood take a piece to try and re-grow so that more people can enjoy it.
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