Buffelgrass Eradication Day

Volunteers in Marana removed 52 bags of buffelgrass from a drainage.

On March 1, 2008, over 200 volunteers joined forces to participate in a regional effort to remove buffelgrass. The event was extremely successful and encouraged new volunteers to lend their support in the Central Arizona Project canals, Ironwood Forest National Monument (Bureau of Land Management), Marana, Oro Valley, Pima County Parks, Sabino Canyon (Coronado National Forest), Saguaro National Park, Santa Rita Experimental Range (University of Arizona), on the Tohono O'odham Nation reservation, and in multiple places in the Tucson metropolitan area.

Volunteers at Sabino Canyon in the Coronado National Forest removed 140 bags of buffelgrass.

Over 400 bags of buffelgrass were manually removed, which is estimated to have contained over 4,000 plants! The event was also successful in raising awareness about the threats buffelgrass presents to the native plants and animals that live in the Sonoran Desert. Extensive media coverage helped to spread the word regarding the event and the buffelgrass management challenge natural resource managers are facing.