Dense stands of buffelgrass, a highly flammable species introduced from
Africa, now line the majority of southern Arizona's highways and surface
streets in our larger metropolitan areas. Because of its flammability,
this introduced grass has quickly become a serious fire risk in urban
and suburban areas, most noticeably along highways and roadsides. Beginning
with the February 2004 Duval Mine Fire, (photograph is from local
newscast on KGUN-9) buffelgrass fires have become routine in the
Tucson area and have already claimed their first fatality.
On November 3, 2005 a buffelgrass fire claimed the life of a homeless
man camped on an empty lot just east of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
By introducing a fire-grass cycle in what used to be a relatively
fireproof desert, buffelgrass poses a serious threat to biological conservation
efforts. Buffelgrass now forms large, burnable stands in many of our
parks and monuments and is actively spreading in the foothills abutting
Coronado National Forest. Familiar groves of saguaros, paloverdes and
other desert species that evolved without fire are quickly becoming embedded
in flammable grassland. In the event of fire, buffelgrass resprouts readily from
the roots and native plants like the saguaro are excluded. Fires that
start in the desert can now spread readily up the mountain. Southern
Arizona can no longer take for granted the Sonoran Desert, a unique backdrop
for its lucrative tourism and housing industry.
This may be our last chance to act effectively against the buffelgrass invasion, and there have been some promising, new developments. In March 2004, the Arizona Department of Agriculture listed buffelgrass under its noxious weed listing and in November 2005 the Pima County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution to manage invasive species, specifically targeting buffelgrass. Control efforts are also being implemented on City of Tucson's Water Farm in the Avra Valley, in consultation with the City of Tucson's Habitat Conservation Plan (http://www.tucsonaz.gov/planning/prog_proj/projects/hcp/). Aggressive eradication efforts are also underway at Tucson Mountain Park, Saguaro National Park, Organ Pipe National Monument, Coronado National Forest, and to a limited extent along interstate highways.
Several organizations have mobilized to educate the public about the risks and costs of the buffelgrass invasion. For example, the Arizona Native Plant Society together with Pima County sponsors an effective volunteer effort in the Tucson Mountains (http://aznps.org/html/exotics_weedwackers.html), and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is playing a pivotal role by mapping the buffelgrass distribution (http://www.desertmuseum.org/invaders/invaders_buffelgrass.htm).
With funding from Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and Pima County, the Desert Laboratory at Tumamoc Hill has undertaken a buffelgrass eradication and outreach effort with three objectives: 1) to eradicate buffelgrass from Tumamoc Hill, protecting the integrity of the long-term research and preserving its value as open space and wildlife habitat; 2) to help educate the public and policy makers about the serious nature of the buffelgrass threat and what can be done about it; and 3) to assist in the coordination of regional efforts to eradicate and control buffelgrass in the Tucson region, with the hope of creating an integrative framework that can be applied to other invasive species and other natural resources problems if successful.
NEW!Download the documentary Buffelgrass Invasion: Its Threat To The Sonoran Desert And Our Will To Stop It. The video is in Quicktime format and is approximately 66 MB (approximate download time 2.5 hours on a 56 Kbps dialup connection, or 35 minutes on a 256 Kbps DSL connection).
An interview with Julio Betancourt and Travis Bean about buffelgrass is available (mp3 format, 5.5 MB) that appeared on Arizona Spotlight, courtesy Robert Rappaport and KUAZ.
You can download an educational brochure in pdf format (approximately 5 MB). You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the brochure.
You can also download The Buffelgrass Class: A Tutorial for Identification and Removal of Buffelgrass. This 5-minute video is a project of Sonoran Desert Weedwackers and the Southern Arizona Native Plant Society, in collaboration with The University of Arizona's Desert Laboratory. It is narrated by Barb Skye Siegel, and was produced by Acacia Betancourt and donated by Black Sheep Video Productions. You will need Windows Media Player to view the video (5 MB). A low-resolution version of the video is also available in Windows Media Player format (1.4 MB).
A draft environmental assessment for buffelgrass control on "A" Mountain and Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, AZ is now available in pdf format.