What's More Worrisome Than Development?

"The April 18, 1996, issue of the Tucson Weekly ran a cover story by Gregory McNamee about an invasive weed called buffelgrass. 'The Grass That Ate Sonora' was an alarming read: Two years before, buffelgrass-infested A Mountain had gone up like a torch on the Fourth of July, and Tucson had glimpsed the startling possibility of a flammable desert."

"A decade has passed, and the problem is now much, much worse. In fact, the severity and extent of the infestation has been increasing steadily since the mid-'90s, and in the last several years, it has exploded--probably because of the combination of drought, warming and the sheer population density of the plant. The situation, according to every scientist interviewed for this story, is now critical.

In spite of the frantic warnings of ecologists and land managers, and despite some valiant and surprisingly effective local efforts, the problem is now so acute that biologists view buffelgrass as an imminent threat to the entire Sonoran Desert ecosystem, and large-scale control efforts are only now getting underway."