Volunteers from Green Valley and Sahuarita Beat Back Buffelgrass on Saturday
The Town of Sahuarita hosted another successful Beat Back Buffelgrass Day on Saturday, February 5. The event was part of the Southern Arizona Buffelgrass Coordination Center’s efforts, with 15 volunteer sites throughout Pima County on that day.
Green Valley and Sahuarita residents noticed two Green Valley Fire District trucks parked along W. Duval Road on Saturday morning, with 29 people working hard to pull the invasive weed from the wash and along the roadside. Volunteers filled 238 industrial-strength garbage bags with buffelgrass. Sahuarita’s Public Works team, Dan Hatfield and John Garcia, collected the bags and brought them directly to the landfill for safe disposal.
Buffelgrass is flammable most of the year, and burns much hotter than native grasses and plants. The native vegetation, unaccustomed to fire, is permanently destroyed while the buffelgrass recovers quickly. As buffelgrass colonizes more areas, native plants and animals are displaced and the threat of fire increases across the landscape.
The photo gallery below shows volunteers working to prevent buffelgrass wildfires and preserve the Sonoran desert’s native grasses and trees. A special thanks to Green Valley Fire District firefighters and volunteers, Sahuarita Rotary Club, and the Valle Verde Rotary Club who all helped out on Saturday.
