Oct 29, 2018 07:12
Saw my first Gila monster last week--hopefully, the first of many. Saw desert tortoises and a rattlesnake, too.
I spent most of my week removing bufflegrass. It's an invasive species from Africa that grows very well in the Sonoran Desert--unfortunately, it chokes out native plants and catches fire easily. Fire isn't common in the desert, so the blazes that can sweep through an area infested with bufflegrass can turn it into a bufflegrass monoculture. It's everywhere. While they've done a good job removing it from infested areas, it's a constant battle and it's expanding in range. There are, apparently, some proposals for biological control methods, but nothing yet. And ever since being introduced to it, I've been spotting it everywhere. There's some right outside where I live. Planning on yanking it up ASAP. I've learned to hate the stuff and it's only been a week.
ecology,
work,
slice of life