Between Via de Ventura and Indian Bend Road, the tallest things in the Hayden Road medians have been the mature Aleppo pines. For years they have made that stretch read as McCormick Ranch rather than just another six-lane arterial. This fall, a dozen of them have yellowing and browning crowns.
On October 13, the McCormick Ranch Property Owners' Association said in a press release for residents that 12 more mature Aleppo pines along those medians had "experienced significant decline." It called the loss unexpected and said it would require changes to plans the City of Scottsdale had already approved. MRPOA's own project documents show the association had already planned for the pines' eventual replacement on Hayden Road. The decline brings that replacement forward.
Two Removals Were in the Plan. Twelve More Were Not.
The approved plan for the Hayden Road medians called for removing two Aleppo pines, and MRPOA says that work is done. The other 12 were supposed to stay.
That plan has been in the works for a long time. MRPOA's 2024 list of improvement and reserve projects showed the Hayden Road medians from Indian Bend to Via de Ventura as "Awaiting Board and City of Scottsdale Approval." By March 2026, the association said it had spent two years on design, review and permitting and had received its permit in the fourth quarter of 2025. Both documents trace the project back to the McCormick Ranch Landscape Master Plan, which the City approved in 2016.
When that March update came out, the concern MRPOA chose to address was the removal of some turf and "a limited number of trees." Seven months later, the number of pines in question has gone from two to 14.
What the Arborist Saw
MRPOA says the arborist who inspected the medians found yellowing and browning foliage, resin around holes in the bark, and woodpecker damage. The release says these signs "can be associated with bark beetle activity." The release then says:
"The arborist's report did conclusively confirm Mediterranean Pine Engraver."
In the same paragraph, the release lists several other stressors and says the decline "is best explained by the cumulative effects of these conditions rather than one confirmed cause." The stressors named are:
- prolonged heat and drought
- limited soil and water storage in the median
- reflected heat
- physical damage
- recent trenching that may have affected tree roots
So the beetle is present, but MRPOA does not call it the sole cause. A median is a hard place for a large pine to live. The root zone is boxed in by pavement, heat comes off the asphalt on both sides, and any trench dug nearby cuts into roots the tree can't easily replace. The release doesn't say what the trenching was for. It says only that it "may have affected tree roots." MRPOA staff increased irrigation to try to save the trees.
A Beetle the Valley Has Known Since 2018
Mediterranean pine engraver is not new to Scottsdale. The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management reported in a 2019 alert that the beetle was found in Phoenix in 2018. It is reddish brown, about 3 to 3.5 millimeters long, and likely reached the United States in solid wood packing materials. According to that alert, it bores under the bark into the layer where a tree moves water and sugars, and the tunnels it leaves cut off that flow.
The same alert explains why stress and the beetle travel together. Healthy pines push out thick resin that traps boring beetles. Stressed trees produce little or none, so they become targets. That fits MRPOA's account of the Hayden Road trees, where the beetle was found in pines that heat, drought and a cramped root zone had already weakened.
The Hayden Road pines are part of a Valley-wide problem with older ornamental pines. In a February 2024 interview with KJZZ, DFFM forest health specialist Mitchell Lannan called the beetle one of "a lot of different factors" killing the Valley's planted Mediterranean pines. He said 2023 trapping had found it in new areas around the state, including Superior, Pinetop-Lakeside and Kingman. In June 2025, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension quoted Maricopa County Master Gardener program coordinator Beth Reidhead: "We have had issues with both eldarica and Aleppo (pine trees) for quite some time in Phoenix." In the same article, Extension agent Chris Jones recalled "quite a bit of roadside mortality" in the Phoenix area the previous August and September. He said that loss "provides an opportunity to replace the trees with even more drought-tolerate species."
That is close to how MRPOA's own plan already reads.
The Plan Was Already Planting the Next Canopy
MRPOA's March 2026 update describes the Hayden Road project as about 1.25 miles of median from Indian Bend Road to Via de Ventura Road. The design approach is to modernize the median, reduce irrigation demand, keep significant existing trees and turf where appropriate, and add trees and low-water plants. The approved schedule includes 144 new trees, and none of the listed species is a pine:
- Mulga
- Willow acacia
- Smoothie cascalote
- Fruitless olive
- Blue palo verde
- Red push pistache
- Joan Lionetti live oak
The plan also adds 359 shrubs, 280 accent plants, 703 groundcover plants, 10 large boulders and 151,931 square feet of decomposed granite. Most of the grass stays. About 247,975 square feet of turf remains inside and outside the right-of-way, which MRPOA puts at about 82% of the turf now in the project area.
The sentence that matters most for the pines is MRPOA's description of the project as part of a "tree succession and shade canopy plan." The goal is to have younger trees "already planted and growing" when older trees become diseased or reach the end of their useful life, so shade is kept and expanded rather than lost. Under that plan, the Aleppo pines were always going to be replaced eventually. The decline means some of them need replacing before the new trees have had years to grow in.
Hayden Road is also following a different design brief than McCormick Ranch Parkway, the association's previous major median project. MRPOA's 2024 project list described the Parkway work, from Scottsdale Road to Hayden Road, as keeping a "Traditional Oasis" theme with existing turf, new smaller palms and low-water shrubs. The Hayden plan names no palms in its tree schedule. It relies instead on desert-adapted and drought-tolerant canopy trees, starting with mulga and palo verde.
The October Review Calendar
MRPOA set out a three-step review in its October 13 release:
- October 20: MRPOA staff meet with the City and the landscape architects to evaluate replacement options.
- October 22: The Landscape Committee reviews and votes on a recommendation.
- October 28: The Board considers the committee's recommendation.
All three dates have now passed. As of the October 13 release, no replacement species had been chosen, and MRPOA said it would "share further information after the review is complete." The association's news page is where that update will appear. Owners who want to weigh in on later decisions can follow the Landscape Committee, which handles the recommendation before it goes to the Board.
Any replacement decision starts from an approved plan in which none of the new trees is a pine. What the review had to settle was which species replace these 12 pines and how the approved plans would change to fit them in.
If a Pine Near You Looks Like the Median
Many McCormick Ranch yards and common areas have pines from the same planting era, so the median trees are a useful reference. DFFM's 2019 alert lists the two most common outward signs of a beetle attack on an urban tree: yellowing needles, especially near the top, and red boring dust on the bark. Pin-sized holes and resin oozing from the bark are less common. MRPOA's release cautions that these symptoms alone do not confirm a cause and recommends a qualified arborist for any tree on private property.
Published guidance from the state and the university covers several points:
- Watering: UA Cooperative Extension says a pine's root zone extends two to three times the width of its canopy and 2 to 3 feet deep. On mature trees, the water should go under the outer edge of the canopy, where the fine roots are.
- Prevention: DFFM's September 2023 alert calls prevention the best option, which means keeping trees healthy and well watered and removing dead and dying trees.
- Established infestations: The same alert says removing an infested tree may be the best way to stop beetles spreading to nearby trees. Infested green material should be chipped, buried or burned, and a certified tree care professional can help decide what to do.
- Reporting: DFFM asks people who suspect beetles in a pine to email [email protected] with the tree's location. The agency says it may be able to cover part of the cost of removal. UA Extension reported in June 2025 that DFFM's Forest Health team was scheduling free site assessments for property owners who suspected bark beetles.
UA Extension notes that how much water a tree needs depends on its species, soil, size and the weather. A diagnosis and treatment plan for a specific tree should come from an arborist who has seen it.
Mature trees affect how a McCormick Ranch street looks, how much shade a lot gets, and how a home photographs when it goes on the market. If you'd like to talk through what changes along Hayden Road could mean for a property you own or plan to buy nearby, MP Real Estate Group can help. Schedule a private consultation with a managing partner.
