Volunteers worked to eradicate buffelgrass in an El Paso arroyo last Tuesday evening. An invasive species from Africa, buffelgrass will dominate an ecosystem, crowding out other species and winning the competition for the sparsest most necessary commodity: water. It is drought tolerant and burns quite hot. When it burns in the Sonoran desert, it will take out native species such as the stately Suguaro cactus which did not evolve in fire conditions. It was introduced into Arizona, Sonora and Texas for cattle food and for erosion control. It is in El Paso.
It should not be confused with buffalograss, a native of the Great Plains from Montana to Mexico. Buffelgrass is fairly easy to identify. There are good online resources about it at the Buffelgrass Information Center and at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's Invaders site.
Watch this excellent video showing the devastation caused by buffelgrass in southern Arizona:
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