On Earth Day in late April, volunteers with the Sonoran Desert Weedwackers were out by 7 a.m. to remove buffelgrass at Tucson Mountain Park.

They hiked about half-mile to the removal site then learned to identify and remove the invasive plant off a rocky slope in the park.

Removal efforts like this one are helping protect the Sonoran Desert from invasive species that pose major risks to animals, native plants and people living here. 

Common invasives like buffelgrass, stinknet and fountain grass are prone to wildfire, choke out natives, decrease biodiversity and are inedible for many local animals.

“You’re losing a food resource that supports so many different levels within the animal community,” from insects to lizards, birds and mammals, said Tony Figueroa, director of the invasive plant program at Tucson Bird Alliance.  

To counteract those impacts, a grassroots community of weed whackers, buffel slayers and other volunteers are joining forces to take out these harmful species across Southern Arizona.  

“I feel like (volunteering is) a really effective way … because people are up close and personal with the plants,” said Ben Tully, invasive species coordinator for the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension who works to educate the public about invasives.

Because they are so useful in fighting harmful plants in Southern Arizona, Tully often collaborates with volunteer groups to set up removal events, he said. 

Sonoran Desert Weedwackers 

One of those groups is the volunteer-powered Sonoran Desert Weedwackers, who remove invasive plants across Pima County. 

The group formed in 2000 as a collaboration between the Desert Museum and local volunteers, said Ellie Schertz, the invasive species program coordinator for Pima County Conservation Lands and Resources Department who now oversees the group. 

“I don’t think there are other groups, like volunteer groups, that work so regularly that have been doing so since 2000. So that’s something that’s really cool about our group,” she said.

The Weedwackers host events year-round. Even in the summer, they are out on hillsides and roadways as early as 6 a.m. to rip out invasive plants. 

“We do a shorter work period and really early in the summer, but it is really cool that this group has been working in the Tucson Mountains and specifically in Tucson Mountain Park, for so long,” Schertz said

The group’s volunteers include everyone from fourth-graders to community members in their 70s and 80s. “It’s cool just to see the positive peer pressure,” Schertz said. “People get involved, they have a good time and then they encourage others to come along with them.”

Steve Sorenson has worked with the Weedwackers for 15 years, removing invasives from parks across Southern Arizona: Saguaro National Park, Sentinel Peak Park and Tucson Mountain Park.

“I hated pulling weeds as a child, so it just felt natural to come out here and hate pulling weeds,” he joked. 

For many volunteers, joining the group not only helps the local environment but is also a way to connect with the community and get outside.

The group mainly works in Tucson Mountain Park, starting on the trail and the area surrounding it, then moving up the mountain sides.

Catalina State Park Buffel Slayers 

Other invasive-fighting volunteer groups like the Catalina State Park Buffel Slayers are focused on a specific park or region. In this case Catalina State Park. 

The group was founded by Patty Estes, now the volunteer coordinator, who first discovered buffelgrass in the park in 2014. 

“I stopped by the ranger station and said, ‘You have buffelgrass — can I just dig it up if I see it?’” she said. 

After getting permission from the park’s education coordinator, she eventually formed the Buffel Slayers, which has been working to remove buffelgrass in the park for more than a decade. 

“Over the years, you know, the Big Horn Fire, lots of things have made you more aware of buffelgrass. Plus, there’s a whole lot of it,” she said. 

Estes regularly hosts volunteer events at the park to gather community members to the cause. Although it’s strenuous work removing buffelgrass, people remain energized, she said. 

“They’re sweaty, they’re tired, they gave up their Saturday — and they’re so cheerful,” she said.

During the volunteer events, she takes the group to priority spots near trails where they remove buffelgrass using gloves, pickaxes and steel weeders. 

“One way we measure progress is we’re hiking a little bit further,” she said. “If you arrive at a trailhead, you’re not going to see buffelgrass anymore.”

For Estes, seeing a reduction in the harmful grass is a major accomplishment.

“You don’t often have that in your life, where you see that you’ve done something and it’s immediately positive,” she said.

Friends of Ironwood Forest 

The Friends of Ironwood Forest share the Buffel Slayers’ dedication, but work in Ironwood Forest National Moment where invasives are harder to spot.

Here, buffelgrass is high up on the top of mountains and hills. The wind blows seeds up the slopes, where rainwater pushes them down the mountain into water drains and washes in the forest. 

“It’s a very prolific seed producer,” group president Christine Flannigan said. 

Founded in 2007, the nonprofit relies on volunteer support to help preserve the cultural, ecological, geological and values of the monument, she said. 

“It’s a bunch of very passionate people,” she said. 

Volunteers hike up the mountains and hills in the monument and remove buffelgrass on the rocky terrain of the slopes. 

The group hosts volunteer events October through April, one to two times a month in the monument. 

Tucson Bird Alliance 

But not every volunteer group is laser focused on invasives.

The nonprofit Tucson Bird Alliance works to protect birds and their natural habitat throughout Tucson and Southern Arizona. One way they do this is through the Invasive Plant Program. 

“We will be like a surgeon with a scalpel, getting rid of the non-native grasses like buffelgrass or fountain grass while leaving a native plant like Arizona cotton top or tanglehead grass, which are easily confused with each other,” said Figueroa, who leads the invasives program with a local strike team of 18 people. 

Their groups’ projects are county-, state- and federally funded, most often along the Santa Cruz River and in the Saguaro National Park and Santa Catalina Mountains. 

Figueroa said his team prioritizes areas of the Sonoran Desert with high fire risk. 

“I’m a Tucson native, so I’m in love with this area, and I know it well. So I’ve seen a lot of the places degrade, and I know the places that I’ve wanted to do work for years,” he said. “Like Mt. Lemmon Highway, that was one of my bucket list items when I started doing invasive plant work.”

The team has been managing invasive plants on the highway for two years now. 

“It gives me goosebumps when I see what it is now compared to what it was just two years ago,” he said. 

Tucson Bird Alliance is also working with other organizations to develop better and quicker ways to get rid of invasive plants using herbicides and other strategies, he said. 

“So beyond just doing the work that we’re doing, we’re starting to be a resource for other people,” he said. 

To learn more about invasive plant removal or to volunteer, visit desertmuseum.org/buffelgrass/pullsitelist.php or ironwoodforest.org/news/work-days.

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.