Invasive Plant Volunteer Events

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Friday, September 19, 2025
Time: 9:00am-3:00pm

Organization: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Forest Service-Catalina Ranger District
Description: Join us to learn to identify, map and remove yellow bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum) and spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) on Mt Lemmon. These are less common invasive plants that have the potential to decrease biodiversity and harm the environment of our sky islands.
Meeting Location: Desert Research Learning Center (DRLC)
Event location: 12661 East Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85748
Volunteers: 5 registered out of a total capacity of 10
Tools Provided: Gloves and hand tools
Bring: Drinking water, snacks, your favorite weeding tool (if you have one)
Wear: Comfortable gardening clothes, closed shoes, a hat
Additional Information: Because some of the locations we will visit have limited parking we encourage participants to carpool, whenever possible. We will meet at the DRLC to sort our car arrangements in the morning.

Saturday, September 20, 2025
Time: 7:00am - 10:00am

Organization: Sonoran Desert Weedwackers - Pima County Conservation Lands & Resources
Description: Join us for a beautiful morning of removing buffelgrass in Tucson Mountain Park! Volunteers should be comfortable with strenuous work including hiking up hills and working off trail on rocky terrain in the heat. We'll provide snacks and drinks when we've finished.
Meeting Location: Details on the specific meeting location within Tucson Mountain Park will be sent a couple days ahead of time. Text or call Amanda if you haven't received an email with meeting location details. A bathroom may or may not be available depending on the meeting location.
Event location: Tucson Mountain Park, 12
Volunteers: 22 registered out of a total capacity of 15
Tools Provided: lightweight digging bars, rock picks, work gloves
Bring: water (2 liters), snacks, backpack, sunscreen
Wear: hiking boots or sturdy shoes, long pants, sun protection (hat, sunglasses, long sleeves)

Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Time: 7:00am - 10:00am

Organization: Sonoran Desert Weedwackers - Pima County Conservation Lands & Resources
Description: Join us for a beautiful morning of removing buffelgrass in Tucson Mountain Park! Volunteers should be comfortable with strenuous work including hiking up hills and working off trail on rocky terrain in the heat. We'll provide snacks and drinks when we've finished.
Meeting Location: Ellie will send details on the specific meeting location within Tucson Mountain Park a couple days ahead of time. Text or call Ellie if you haven't received an email with meeting location details. A bathroom may or may not be available depending on the meeting location.
Event location: Tucson Mountain Park,
Volunteers: 1 registered out of a total capacity of 15
Tools Provided: lightweight digging bars, rock picks, work gloves
Bring: water (2 liters), snacks, backpack, sunscreen
Wear: hiking boots or sturdy shoes, long pants, sun protection (hat, sunglasses, long sleeves)
Additional Information: Our volunteer group works every 2nd & 4th Wednesday of the month and every 3rd Saturday of the month. Wednesdays tend to include more challenging terrain and/or further hikes.

Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Time: 7:00am - 11:00am

Organization: Sonoran Desert Weedwackers - Pima County Conservation Lands & Resources
Description: Join us for a beautiful morning of removing buffelgrass in Tucson Mountain Park! We will hike to an area with buffelgrass plants, dig up the plants with hand picks and digging bars, and carefully pile the plants to decompose on site. Volunteers should be comfortable with physically strenuous work including hiking on hillslopes off trail on rocky terrain. We'll provide snacks and drinks when we're finished.
Meeting Location: Ellie will send details on the specific meeting location within Tucson Mountain Park a couple days ahead of time. Text or call Ellie if you haven't received an email with meeting location details. A bathroom may or may not be available depending on the meeting location.
Event location: Tucson Mountain Park,
Volunteers: 0 registered out of a total capacity of 20
Tools Provided: lightweight digging bars, rock picks, work gloves
Bring: water (2 liters), snacks, backpack, sunscreen
Wear: hiking boots or sturdy shoes, long pants, sun protection (hat, sunglasses, long sleeves)
Additional Information: Our volunteer group works every 2nd & 4th Wednesday of the month and every 3rd Saturday of the month. Wednesdays tend to include more challenging terrain and/or further hikes.

Saturday, October 18, 2025
Time: 7:00am - 11:00am

Organization: Sonoran Desert Weedwackers - Pima County Conservation Lands & Resources
Description: Join us for a beautiful morning of removing buffelgrass in Tucson Mountain Park! We will hike to an area with buffelgrass plants, dig up the plants with hand picks and digging bars, and carefully pile the plants to decompose on site. Volunteers should be comfortable with physically strenuous work including hiking on hillslopes off trail on rocky terrain. We'll provide snacks and drinks when we're finished.
Meeting Location: Ellie will send details on the specific meeting location within Tucson Mountain Park a couple days ahead of time. Text or call Ellie if you haven't received an email with meeting location details. A bathroom may or may not be available depending on the meeting location.
Event location: Tucson Mountain Park,
Volunteers: 2 registered out of a total capacity of 20
Tools Provided: lightweight digging bars, rock picks, work gloves
Bring: water (2 liters), snacks, backpack, sunscreen
Wear: hiking boots or sturdy shoes, long pants, sun protection (hat, sunglasses, long sleeves)
Additional Information: Our volunteer group works every 2nd & 4th Wednesday of the month and every 3rd Saturday of the month. Saturdays tend to include easier terrain and/or shorter hikes.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Time: 7:00am - 11:00am

Organization: Sonoran Desert Weedwackers - Pima County Conservation Lands & Resources
Description: Join us for a beautiful morning of removing buffelgrass in Tucson Mountain Park! We will hike to an area with buffelgrass plants, dig up the plants with hand picks and digging bars, and carefully pile the plants to decompose on site. Volunteers should be comfortable with physically strenuous work including hiking on hillslopes off trail on rocky terrain. We'll provide snacks and drinks when we're finished.
Meeting Location: Ellie will send details on the specific meeting location within Tucson Mountain Park a couple days ahead of time. Text or call Ellie if you haven't received an email with meeting location details. A bathroom may or may not be available depending on the meeting location.
Event location: Tucson Mountain Park,
Volunteers: 0 registered out of a total capacity of 20
Tools Provided: lightweight digging bars, rock picks, work gloves
Bring: water (2 liters), snacks, backpack, sunscreen
Wear: hiking boots or sturdy shoes, long pants, sun protection (hat, sunglasses, long sleeves)
Additional Information: Our volunteer group works every 2nd & 4th Wednesday of the month and every 3rd Saturday of the month. Wednesdays tend to include more challenging terrain and/or further hikes.

Friday, November 7, 2025
Time: 8:00am - 12:30pm

Organization: Saguaro National Park
Description: What better way to spend the first Friday of the month than pulling buffelgrass at Saguaro National Park? This event will be our kickoff in the winter volunteer season series called: First Friday Festival of Fun with Frank and Frankie We will meet at Frank's house in Picture Rocks (specific location shared after RSVP) to hike about 1 mile on a social trail to a population of buffelgrass that we have been hacking away at for a few years now. We keep patiently waiting for it to RAIN so our hearty buffelgrass spray crew can chemically treat the top portion of this monster population, but until then we will continue to manually remove its underbelly. Come dig out the guts with us while admiring the progress we've made and maintained with our manual treatments. Please come prepared to hike off trail over loose rocks and around pokey plants. Long pants, sturdy shoes, and drinking water required! Long sleeves, hat, sunglasses, and a smile are all recommended. We will provide any tools and PPE necessary to knock it out of the park.
Meeting Location: Location shared after RSVP. Meeting spot is on private land, graciously offered to us by Frank and saving us time and effort on the hike in.
Event location: , Picture Rocks, AZ
Volunteers: 0 registered out of a total capacity of 12
Tools Provided: All tools will be provided
Bring: 1-2 liters of water, a love for native plants
Wear: Long pants, sturdy shoes, sun protection of your choice

Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Time: various times

Organization: Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
Description: Help pull buffelgrass from areas surrounding the sheep grazing pens. Only those who volunteer, and are gentle, will have permission to get closer to the animals. You will be using a small pick to dig out clumps of grass.
Meeting Location: Usually we will meet at the lower parking lot of Sentinel Peak Park, but the location could vary. Pay attention to the message being sent out regarding exact location and time.
Event location: 1001 S. Sentinel Peak Rd., Tucson, AZ 85745
Volunteers: 28 registered out of a total capacity of 80
Tools Provided: Rock hammers and gloves will be provided.
Bring: Bring a refillable water bottle (FULL) and a pack to carry everything in. We strongly encourage the use of non-disposable water bottles as a pro-environmental measure.
Wear: Wear good hiking shoes, long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen.
Additional Information: As mentioned before, there are not specific dates and times yet. Some will be morning, some will be afternoon. When we come up with times, we will send a message a few days ahead of time to all that are interested and whoever is able to show up joins us that day.

Retrieved from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum web site on 09-18-2025
http://buffelgrass.org/buffelgrass/pullsitelist.php?range=1994-02-01