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What is buffelgrass?

Buffelgrass is a perennial grass from Africa that is invasive to the Sonoran Desert of the Southwest United States, where it threatens desert ecosystems by out-competing native plants and altering fire regimes. It has the potential to transform the Sonoran Desert ecosystem from a diverse assemblage of plants to a grassland monoculture.

Buffelgrass was brought to Arizona in the 1930s for erosion control and began expanding rapidly in the 1980s. Left unchecked, buffelgrass will dominate the desert landscape and could enable regular, fast-moving wildfires.

USGS research shows that early treatment of areas invaded by buffelgrass can dramatically reduce the presence of this species.

Learn more: Buffelgrass Fact Sheet (National Park Service)

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    Buffelgrass-Integrated modeling of an invasive plant

    Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) poses a problem in the deserts of the United States, growing in dense stands and introducing a wildfire risk in an ecosystem not adapted to fire. The Invasive Species Science Branch of the Fort Collins Science Center has worked with many partners to develop a decision support model and a data management system to address the problem. The decision support model eval
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    Tracy R. Holcombe
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    Buffelgrass fuel loads in Saguaro National Park, Arizona, increase fire danger and threaten native species

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    Authors
    T. C. Esque, C. R. Schwalbe, J.A. Lissow, D.F. Haines, D. Foster, M.C. Garnet
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    Invasions by exotic annual grasses, most notably cheatgrass and medusahead, are unambiguous threats to rangelands in the western United States...

    Read Article
    link

    Wildfire and Invasive Species Drives Increasing Size and Cost of Public Land Restoration Efforts

    An examination of long-term data for lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management finds that land treatments in the southwestern United States are...

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    link

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