Weed Manager of the Year: One Man's Quest to Save the Sonoran Desert
When Don Pike takes his daily walk, he laces up his brown hiking boots, grabs his walking stick and bucket hat and heads outside. Ten feet later, he carefully slips past barbed wire and enters the Tonto National Forest. Unlike other parts of the Tonto, where the ground between native plants and trees is covered with dry grasses, the earth is pale, crusty and barren, like it's meant to be.
That's because Mr. Pike has been pulling weeds.
'You won't find any of them in this area here because I've removed them,' said Mr. Pike, 84, a retiree from Maine who installed floor-to-ceiling windows in his living room to better see his beloved desert.
Mr. Pike is at war with buffel grass and fountain grass, two invasive species that are spreading in the Sonoran desert, choking native plants, increasing the risk and intensity of wildfires and threatening a vibrant ecosystem.
He began hunting the thick grasses, which were introduced to the area by landscapers, almost 15 years ago. Since then, he estimates that he and his team of volunteers have cleared 550 of the roughly 14,000 acres they oversee. In 2024, that earned him the title of Arizona's Weed Manager of the Year.
Work by volunteers like Mr. Pike has always been an important supplement to managing federal lands, according to government workers who say their programs have been underfunded for years. But since the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency began mass firings of federal workers, volunteers like Mr. Pike have become more vital than ever.
'It's going to be important for the federal agencies, the Forest Service in particular, to find ways to engage people,' Mr. Pike said on his back porch in March. 'There's a lot of people that want to get involved. Particularly retirees who have a lot of skills.'
Ine February, at least 2,000 employees had been eliminated from the U.S. Forest Service, which is responsible for lands across the country that, together, rival the size of Texas. Forests like the Tonto are at risk as climate change increases the chances of wildfires and as invasive species spread. But citizen scientists like Mr. Pike are working to reduce fire and heat risks, clear hundreds of acres of invasives and capture data on threatened cactuses, helping to save what otherwise might be lost.
Bringing in Reinforcements
Patti Fenner was an invasive weeds specialist for the United States Forest Service in 2011 when she gave a presentation to a retirees group that included Mr. Pike.
After the talk, Ms. Fenner and Mr. Pike took a hike and she pointed out how invasive grasses had begun overtaking native plants. That first outing led to a decades-long obsession, and when Ms. Fenner retired three years later and founded Friends of the Tonto, a volunteer group with about 70 members that assists the national forest, Mr. Pike became one of the first members.
Ms. Fenner had worked in the forest since college, doing a variety of jobs. She liked the Forest Service-style of land management because it demanded compromise from all parties. Unlike national parks, Forest Service land is used by multiple interests, including logging, mining and ranching in addition to recreation.
But maintaining an ecological balance is also key, and when Ms. Fenner became the forest's first noxious weed manager in 2003, it felt like a Sisyphean task to clear three million acres of rapidly multiplying invasive species.
Mr. Pike decided to concentrate on a smaller scale, homing in on what's known as the wildland urban interface, or the space where developments like his neighborhood creep up on wilderness areas like the Tonto. A former engineer, he created a map to track the progress he made with his team of volunteers, pinning a green flag where invasives were cleared. The flag turns yellow after two years as a reminder to clear the area again. While his system is effective in his relatively small section, it's an unlikely fix for an entire forest.
'In the direction that we're headed, the desert will become a grassland,' Mr. Pike said.
Lightning-strike fires have always been possible in the desert, but excess vegetation like red brome, a grass that dries into short hay-like tufts, has contributed to bigger and more frequent wildfires in the Tonto.
One of the first huge wildfires came in 2005, when the Cave Creek Complex fire burned 243,000 acres. Then, in the summer of 2020, Mr. Pike watched the sky turn orange as the Bush fire burned 193,000 acres, killing roughly 80,000 saguaros, the distinctive cactuses with cartoonish curved arms. Invasive plants grew back quickly, outcompeting the native saguaros and palo verde, the state tree with flowers like tiny yellow bells.
So, Friends of the Tonto started a second monitoring program for the saguaros. In late 2023, Mr. Pike created another map with more than 9,900 tiny saguaros. On this one, green signals good health and black means the cactus is dead. He's trained about 40 people to find additional saguaros and monitor the ones already in the database.
Staff at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and the Saguaro National Park near Tucson are also monitoring the plants. But Mr. Pike's group is a citizen science program done exclusively by volunteers using simple tools. They measure, somewhat based on guesswork, the height and number of arms, and share visual observations of the cactus's health, along with a photo.
The Future of the Forest
The main office at Tonto has been closed for years because the Forest Service had trouble staffing it, even before the recent hiring freeze and terminations, largely because the pay was low, Ms. Fenner said. Other offices within the forest used to stay open on weekends during the busy season, but that also ended years ago because of a lack of employees.
'If you're trying to get ahold of somebody there's no one to talk to,' Ms. Fenner said of the forest staff. 'It's like nobody's home.'
Ongoing budget and staffing issues at the Tonto have limited the scope of volunteer work, which is based on an agreement with the Forest Service that spells out the terms of the relationship.
The Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Pike has been struggling to contact federal employees who can help him apply for grants. In 2024, he helped win a $105,000 grant from the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Management to hire a contractor to apply herbicide and organize a youth group to cull invasive plants in the forest.
'It's not going to get better, it's going to get worse,' Mr. Pike said of communication with forest managers. He's wants to secure more grants to better manage the invasive plants but without support from forest officials, he said, 'I can't logically expand the area that I'm covering.'
Still, they are tackling the impossible, weed by weed. At the top of a hill overlooking the Tonto called Sears-Kay, which features ruins almost 1,000 years old, Ms. Fenner spotted buffel grass in late March. She tried to pull it with her bare hands but it was rooted too firmly. So she called Mr. Pike, and he encouraged her to go back with a shovel.
She went on a walk and pulled the plant the next day.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Climbers find upside-down American flag signaling ‘distress' on Tahoe summit
An upside-down American flag atop Flagpole Peak above Echo Lakes near Lake Tahoe is drawing attention after two climbers encountered the display during a summit last week. Tadd Perkins of South Lake Tahoe and Nicholas Schwab of San Francisco climbed the peak on June 10, initially noticing the flagpole from a distance. As they neared the summit, they saw the flag was flying upside down — a symbol of distress under the U.S. Flag Code. Visible from Meyers (El Dorado County) and the Echo Lake trailhead into Desolation Wilderness, the flag appears to be part of a broader wave of symbolic protest on public lands. In recent months, upside-down flags and large banners have been used to criticize cuts to environmental and emergency services carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency, a federal group led until recently by Elon Musk. In February, an upside-down U.S. flag was unfurled on Yosemite's El Capitan during the park's annual firefall spectacle. In May, a 1,925-square-foot Transgender Pride flag was draped over the same cliff face, prompting Yosemite officials to ban banners larger than 15 square feet in designated wilderness areas. Perkins, a retired Federal Emergency Management Agency official and firefighter, said he wasn't involved in the Flagpole Peak display but empathized with its message. 'Even prior to recent DOGE cuts, public lands staffing was in decline while recreational visitation was at or near all-time highs,' Perkins said. 'Most of us can see why this is not a good equation for the health of the resources over time.' He warned against the long-term impact of slashing public service jobs that support outdoor infrastructure. Last month, 16 AmeriCorps members in the Tahoe Basin were laid off mid-term due to canceled federal grants — a decision tied up in litigation. Although a U.S. District Court has ordered some AmeriCorps funding restored, the Trump administration is expected to appeal by August. 'We can't use a chain saw against the places that sustain us and the agencies and workforce that support them,' Perkins said, referencing Musk's widely publicized appearance wielding a chain saw at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. 'These public lands are so great because they have had tireless public servants dedicated to them.' The U.S. Forest Service, which manages Flagpole Peak, acknowledged the display and noted it could be considered abandoned property under federal regulations. However, no national policy prohibits such symbolic expressions. 'We are aware of the public attention surrounding the display of an upside-down United States flag at this location,' said Lisa Herron, a spokesperson for the USDA Forest Service's Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. 'On the national level, there is no policy prohibiting hanging of banners, flags or signs, and it is considered a protected form of speech.' Perkins pointed out that outdoor recreation contributes an estimated $1.2 trillion to the U.S. economy annually, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis. 'When I'm climbing and hiking, I admittedly am not thinking about the economic benefit from time outside,' Perkins said. 'I am thinking about the person it's helped me become and how it has brought me the best experiences and friends in my life.' He added that this is why 'someone might want to hang an American flag on public lands, to signal the distress we are in.'
USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
Justice Jackson: Supreme Court appears to favor 'monied interests' over ordinary citizens
Jackson's dissent in a case about air pollution rules came two weeks after she said the court may be unintentionally showing preferential treatment for the Trump administration. WASHINGTON − For the second time this month, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has complained that her colleagues are weighing the scales of justice differently depending on who is asking for help. 'This case gives fodder to the unfortunate perception that moneyed interests enjoy an easier road to relief in this Court than ordinary citizens,' she wrote in her disagreement with the majority's June 20 decision that fuel producers can challenge California emissions standards under a federal air pollution law. Jackson's dissent came two weeks after she wrote that the court is sending a 'troubling message" that it's departing from basic legal standards for the Trump administration. The court's six conservatives include three appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term. In a case involving the Trump administration, the Supreme Court on June 6 said Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency could have complete access to the data of millions of Americans kept by the U.S. Social Security Administration. Jackson said a majority of the court didn't require the administration to show it would be 'irreparably harmed' by not getting immediate access, one of the legal standards for intervention. "It says, in essence, that although other stay applicants must point to more than the annoyance of compliance with lower court orders they don't like," she wrote, "the Government can approach the courtroom bar with nothing more than that and obtain relief from this Court nevertheless." More: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson can throw a punch. Literally. The court's two other liberals – Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – also disagreed with the majority's opinion in the Trump case. But Kagan joined the conservatives June 20 in siding with the fuel producers. Jackson, however, said there were multiple reasons the court shouldn't have heard the case from among the thousands of appeals it receives. Those reasons include the fact that the change in administrations was likely to make the dispute go away. But by ruling in the fuel industry's favor, Jackson wrote, the court made it easier for others to challenge anti-pollution laws. 'And I worry that the fuel industry's gain comes at a reputational cost for this Court, which is already viewed by many as being overly sympathetic to corporate interests,' she said in her dissent. A clock, a mural, a petition: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's chambers tell her story Jackson said the court's 'remarkably lenient approach' to the fuel producers' challenge stands in contrast to the 'stern stance' it's taken in cases involving fair housing, desegrated schools or privacy concerns. In response, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who authored the 7-2 opinion, pointed to other cases he said show the court is even handed. Those include its decision last year that anti-abortion doctors couldn't challenge the Food and Drug Administration's handling of a widely used abortion drug. More: Supreme Court revives suit against cop who fatally shot driver stopped for unpaid tolls 'In this case, as we have explained, this Court's recent standing precedents support the conclusion that the fuel producers have standing,' Kavanaugh wrote about the industry's ability to sue. 'The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,' he wrote.
USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
Justice Jackson: Supreme Court appears to favor `monied interests' over ordinary citizens
Jackson's dissent in a case about air pollution rules came two weeks after she said the court may be unintentionally showing preferential treatment for the Trump administration. WASHINGTON − For the second time this month, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has complained that her colleagues are weighing the scales of justice differently depending on who is asking for help. 'This case gives fodder to the unfortunate perception that moneyed interests enjoy an easier road to relief in this Court than ordinary citizens,' she wrote in her disagreement with the majority's June 20 decision that fuel producers can challenge California emissions standards under a federal air pollution law. Jackson's dissent came two weeks after she wrote that the court is sending a 'troubling message" that it's departing from basic legal standards for the Trump administration. The court's six conservatives include three appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term. In a case involving the Trump administration, the Supreme Court on June 6 said Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency could have complete access to the data of millions of Americans kept by the U.S. Social Security Administration. Jackson said a majority of the court didn't require the administration to show it would be 'irreparably harmed' by not getting immediate access, one of the legal standards for intervention. "It says, in essence, that although other stay applicants must point to more than the annoyance of compliance with lower court orders they don't like," she wrote, "the Government can approach the courtroom bar with nothing more than that and obtain relief from this Court nevertheless." More: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson can throw a punch. Literally. The court's two other liberals – Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – also disagreed with the majority's opinion in the Trump case. But Kagan joined the conservatives June 20 in siding with the fuel producers. Jackson, however, said there were multiple reasons the court shouldn't have heard the case from among the thousands of appeals it receives. Those reasons include the fact that the change in administrations was likely to make the dispute go away. But by ruling in the fuel industry's favor, Jackson wrote, the court made it easier for others to challenge anti-pollution laws. 'And I worry that the fuel industry's gain comes at a reputational cost for this Court, which is already viewed by many as being overly sympathetic to corporate interests,' she said in her dissent. A clock, a mural, a petition: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's chambers tell her story Jackson said the court's 'remarkably lenient approach' to the fuel producers' challenge stands in contrast to the 'stern stance' it's taken in cases involving fair housing, desegrated schools or privacy concerns. In response, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who authored the 7-2 opinion, pointed to other cases he said show the court is even handed. Those include its decision last year that anti-abortion doctors couldn't challenge the Food and Drug Administration's handling of a widely used abortion drug. More: Supreme Court revives suit against cop who fatally shot driver stopped for unpaid tolls 'In this case, as we have explained, this Court's recent standing precedents support the conclusion that the fuel producers have standing,' Kavanaugh wrote about the industry's ability to sue. 'The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,' he wrote.
