The number of individuals of S. mesae-verdae per unit area varies tremendously. As many as 20 individual plants have been seen within 50 square meters or as few as a single specimen with no other Mesa Verde cacti within several hundred meters. As mentioned earlier this cactus tends to cluster, forming small to large populations. The amount of collecting of Sclerocactus mesae-verdae has been great and widespread in the past, but its overall effects on native populations are unknown. One to three monitoring stations should be set up at each of the five populations and checked at least twice a year to determine, at least approximately, how much collecting is being done.
Evidence indicates that collecting is occurring because very few large plants are found.
It is difficult to determine the extent of the impact collecting has had on S. mesae-verdae and how much collecting is still continuing. Paul Knight of the New Mexico Natural Heritage Program discovered a population of approximately 75 Mesa Verde cacti north of Waterflow, New Mexico in 1981. Knight could not relocate a single plant. Apparently, these cacti were collected sometime between Knight's visits, probably by a commercial dealer. During 1983, Dr. Richard Spellenberg of New Mexico State University revisited a site where previously he had found many plants.