Buffelgrass Mitigation, a Possible Future SAR Community Service Project?

Article & Photos
by
Rink Reinking

On Saturday, July 11, 2009, six members of the Southern Arizona Region of PCA met at the corner of Oracle and Orange Grove Roads, in the same parking lot we use for the Adopt-A-Roadway gatherings. Our group was organized by Jan Ranmaker, chairman of the SAR roadway cleanup campaign. Several of us had noticed an increased presence of Buffelgrass along our stretch of East Orange Grove Road during the past roadway cleanup. Jan had invited Marilyn Hanson, a volunteer coordinator with the Sonoran Desert Weedwackers, to help answer our questions. The discussion centered around the problem of the current Southwestern Arizona Buffelgrass invasion and efforts by individuals and groups to mitigate the damage done by this invasive, non-native plant. Marilyn explained that Buffelgrass could be identified by the fact that the seeds develop on the end of a stalk, which has a slightly fuzzy appearance that looks like a bottlebrush when green or partially dried, (bottlebrush inflorescence). And, that after the seeds disperse, the dried central stem that used to contain the inflorescence seeds is extremely rough if you run your fingers from the bottom to the top (rough rachis). After a short while we received the answers to many questions poised by our group.

Green Buffelgrass stalk
(Click on Photo)

Dried Buffelgrass stalk
(Click on Photo)

Time for some action. We drove East on Orange Grove to a spot just past the golf course where we stopped on the South side of the road. That spot is heavily infested with Buffelgrass, as are other places along 'our' stretch of Orange Grove. We were fortunate to be able to see Buffelgrass in the green state (it rained just two days before our gathering), and in the dried state with rough rachis very obvious (see photos). Marilyn applied a 6-foot long, 14 pound digging bar to several spots around a clump of Buffelgrass, then used a block of wood for leverage and urged the heavy plant out of the ground. After a brief shake to dislodge the excess dirt, the Buffelgrass was placed into a 50 gallon black plastic bag. The six of us (Jan, Kathleen, Jim, Carol, Jerry and Rink), took turns using the digging bar, holding the bag and transporting the clumps (all technical terms :-) It didn't take very long to see that it is possible to do this job, even if it is a lot of work. Further discussion suggested that teams of three would be able to rotate the three removal duties, thus allowing some respite from the digging duty (the most difficult part of the job). We then drove further East and stopped to discuss the infestation on the gradual slopes leading up to the walled residential area on the North side, near the First Avenue end of our section of Orange Grove. Here the plant infestation is less thick and the area is still partially populated with native grasses, not yet ousted by the aggressive Buffelgrass.

Surveying our little section of Orange Grove shows that Buffelgrass is a major and growing problem there. Our brief outing suggested that we might be able to do something about the problem and give back a little more to our community. Mind you, this would mean a lot of heavy, dirty work and a commitment from the club to see the project to the end. This would be extra work, above and beyond the current Adopt-A-Roadway commitment to clean the trash from that section of the road. Jan has found an agency that would remove filled bags and it appears that we could obtain the proper permits. The SAR board of directors had a discussion at the July board meeting, and asked Jan and his team to continue to investigate the possibilities of a Buffelgrass removal program.

Jim and Kathleen
work at digging

Jerry holds green
and dried Buffelgrass

Carol, Jim and
Kathleen bagging