Beat Back Buffelgrass

Now on to what I actually wanted to post about today:

The Buffelgrass Information Center and the Pima Association of Governments is holding a "Beat Back Buffelgrass Day" this Saturday from 8-11 AM. Attendees will learn how to identify buffelgrass and will be taken to sites in the area to remove it; the group also encourages neighborhood removal of the noxious weed. I support pulling it on sight.

Learn more on the event website.

Buffelgrass is an invasive weed and fire hazard wrongheadedly introduced to the area as forage a few decades ago. As the Sonoran Desert biome did not evolve as one that periodically burned, buffelgrass-fueled fires kill off native plants like saguaro and cholla and destroy the local ecosystem, leaving nothing but buffelgrass. I'd say that buffelgrass is to Arizona what kudzu is to the Deep South, but it's worse. It's more like rabbits in Australia.

In Mexico it is still planted as forage, illustrating yet again (as if we didn't have enough examples already) why there's need for an international convention on invasive species and noxious weeds.