Left cactus is Pachycereus pringlei.

Right cactus is Myrtillocactus geometrizans.

@fig_insanity Z7b E TN Do you understand the cactus on the right could easily weigh 300 to 500 pounds? Assume by volume that the plant occupies about 64 US gallons and go calculate the weight of 64 gallons of water....

No, I didn't realize it was that large. There's no real sense of scale in your photo. The fence is no help because for all the photo shows, the cacti could be in a raised bed, and one foot, or ten, from the fence. And a cactus is NOT solid water, it's full of vesicles, air pockets, and sap. Some cacti are less than 10% water. But in any case, I doubt it weighs 300# even if it is 6 feet tall. And even though it might take two people to handle it, the method is the same that professional landscapers use to handle cacti, though they sometimes use even heavier paper.

My sincere apologies for attempting to help. Sooooo sorry.

Are those still in ground? I saw a post on Craigslist and understand they were free to whoever can dig them up and take away. I have done this with larger cactuses before using method like described by fig_insanity. Happy to dig them up and take away if this is the question. Let me know.

@Alain (Pacifica, CA;10a) Large cactus in the ground are almost always given away. They want someone to do free garden work for them.

Remove 2-3 of the longest "arms" until it seems a managable size and weight. Wrap as described above. Recruit 2-3 people to help. Dig around it and maneuver onto a dolly to roll it to its next home.

@socks What I was going to use was either shipping blankets or a tarp with reinforced nylon. Paper alone would probably not stop barbs coming through. In the SF Bay Area, using a site like Taskrabbit to recruit help, you will end up paying more than $50/hr. Multiply three people by even two hours and you have a $300 plant. So finding strategies to do this on your own is maybe the only way to make it cost-effective. For a very large specimen of course you would have no choice.