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Experts will work to contain the grass in the popular hiking site, also the location of the UA’s Desert Laboratory.

By University Communications
July 28, 2008

Tumamoc Hill will be closed to walkers for 12 days, beginning Aug. 4, while spraying crews to take advantage of the monsoon season to kill buffelgrass while it is still growing.

Experts at The University of Arizona are working with Pima County to contain the grass in the popular hiking site, also the location of the UA’s Desert Laboratory.

Michael L. Rosenzweig, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the UA and director of the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, believes that while buffelgrass is a problem that it can be contained effectively. "It is essential that we keep buffelgrass down,” Rosenzweig said. “We have sites with observations going back to 1905, the oldest anywhere in the world, and it is vital that they are preserved.”

This invasive grass has its origins in the African savannah and has gained a foothold in central and southern Arizona where it grows in dense stands threatening native vegetation. If left uncontrolled, buffelgrass has the potential to alter the landscape of the Sonoran Desert.

In March 2005, the Arizona Department of Agriculture placed buffelgrass in the noxious weed rules. The Department of Agriculture announced, “It will be in the prohibited and regulated weed rules, which means no seeds or other life stages are allowed to be brought into Arizona and local municipalities have the power to not only kill these weeds, but wage a better argument in obtaining grant funds to do so."

Signs have already been posted alerting walkers of the temporary closure. “We will reopen the hill to walkers as quickly as possible,” Rosenzweig said.

Rosenzweig is optimistic that that the team working on Tumamoc Hill have turned the corner in their battle to contain the invasive species. “Tumamoc has been at this for a number of years,” Rosenzweig said. “By next year we will have reached the tipping point to the extent that it has been controlled. This may be the last year that we have to do truly intensive spraying.”