Desert-tree transplant pioneers plan to expand

Jane Larson
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 15, 2007 11:35 AM

Maurice Bosc says his team will stay the same old desert dogs, only now they have the chance to learn some new tricks.

The president of Desierto Verde Inc. says the company's recent sale won't change the management team but will help the tree salvage and relocation company expand its services.

"We started everything with a lot of hard work and innovation while staying very low-tech," Bosc said. "And now we still plan on doing things with hard work and innovation."

 Tempe-based Desierto Verde was bought last month by the Omnia Group, a private equity firm based in St. Louis. The seller was Scottsdale-based Montage Holdings LLC, which bought Desierto Verde two years ago.

Greene Holcomb & Fisher, an investment bank with offices in Phoenix and Minneapolis, arranged the deal.

Nearly 30 years ago, Desierto Verde pioneered the idea of transplanting large desert trees instead of bulldozing them when land was developed. Before then, most experts thought such trees would never survive relocation.

"The people who started (the company) had no horticultural or botanical background," Bosc said. "Because of that, I guess it could have been our greatest limitation but also our greatest advantage, the fact that the sky was the limit."

Today, it salvages trees as well as grows trees at its own farms and offers related services. Its customers are developers and landscape contractors, mainly around the Valley but also in Southern California and the Las Vegas area.

Business has grown with the demand for high-end desert landscaping, Vice President Susan Chase said.

The new ownership, which includes 13 Desierto Verde managers, will give the company resources to expand, Bosc said.

Specifically, it wants to expand its Global Positioning System and Geographic Information System department, which surveys the significant architectural and landscape features on a property. It also will offer information management services to help developers communicate efficiently with surveyors, engineers and government staffers. Offering more landscape-related services will help its customers, who have long wanted to deal with a single supplier.

Omnia Group wants to help the Arizona firm expand services and continue to provide quality trees, principal Cory Emmenegger said.

Omnia has been looking for other Arizona investments since it invested early last year in Western Window Systems, a Phoenix manufacturer of high-end aluminum windows and doors. Desierto Verde fit the firm's criteria, he said.

"For us one of the main criteria is a strong management team, and Desierto Verde definitely has that," Emmenegger said. "We felt very comfortable with their strategy for future growth, how they are running the business and their respect for their people and employees."

Desierto Verde started when founder Phil Hebets, an engineer, wanted a mature desert tree for a landscaping project and salvaged one from a mine site.

The company's "boxing methodology" takes into account the tree's size, trunk and health to determine the correct size of box to transplant it in, Chase said. The methodology has been refined and improved over the years, but Desierto Verde still prides itself on manually digging out trees to preserve their low branches and natural character.

The process helped prove that such transplants could be successful, and led to Scottsdale and several other Valley cities passing ordinances requiring developers to save desert vegetation when possible, Bosc and Chase said.

The next milestone in the company's history was the decision to begin farming trees in the mid-1980s to complement the desert-dug varieties. "We could see that maybe those trees would be a dwindling resource," Bosc said.

Today, it propagates seeds at the 25-acre nursery it leases on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation and transfers them to the three farms, each with a different microclimate. It takes four to 10 years before trees can be harvested and sold.

That makes them long-term investments and sets Desierto Verde apart from competitors who are unwilling or unable to invest in farms, Chase said.

The company's history is another differentiator.

"We were ahead of our time being extremely 'green' at a time when being 'green' wasn't exactly the most popular thing," Bosc said. "Now it seems like everyone is talking about being 'green' and we still are. We haven't changed our approach."

Desierto Verde Inc.

Business: Salvaging and growing desert trees, plus related services, for developers and landscape contractors.

Headquarters: Tempe. Nursery on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation and farms in Buckeye, Maricopa and Gila Bend.

Founded: 1980.

Employees: 300 in peak season.

2006 revenue: $13 million.

Web site: www.desverde.com.

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