George Lippold hacks away at the woody stalk with his machete in a tucked away field near a Tanque Verde neighborhood. Despite the cool early morning, he has already worked up a sweat in his blue long-sleeve shirt.
“You see all this growth? We have to get rid of it,” he says, not pausing as he works.
Lippold, a local resident, volunteers with the Sky Island Alliance to remove the invasive Arundo donax, or giant reed, from a small ravine-like area in his neighborhood. As he chops down the towering stalks, he tosses them onto a pile to be hauled to an even larger heap at the end of the road.
“I live a few houses down,” Lippold says. “It’s great to see how it has transformed.”
The aggressive Arundo is an invasive species that threatens riparian ecosystems across the Southwest.
Since the project began in June 2024, the Sky Island Alliance has logged more than 1,400 hours of volunteer labor, says Sarah Truebe, the organization’s habitat conservation manager.
The group is also cleaning up invasive species at other sites, upcoming events can be found here.
It’s tiring work in unpredictable terrain. When the team first started, the invasive reed was so thick it masked the land’s topography. Clearing it revealed new hollows and, most recently, a trough.
Truebe remembered the project’s early days.
“When we first started, there was kind of a wet area smaller than that little puddle,” she says, gesturing toward a shallow, moist divot in the field.
Get involved
Sky Island Alliance and Watershed Management Group host various invasive species clean-ups, along with other opportunities to learn and restore local ecosystems.
Sky Island Alliance
Here are some upcoming events — sign up here.
- Tucson ‘Spring Cleaning’
May 27, 5-7:30 p.m. - Springs Trip Planning and Navigation Workshop May 29, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
- Tucson ‘Spring Cleaning’
June 3, 5-7:30 p.m. - Tucson ‘Spring Cleaning’
June 10, 5-7:30 p.m.
Watershed Management Group
WMG runs Arundo removal events Saturday mornings October-May along the Tanque Verde. Find all upcoming events here.
Despite sparse rain, the team’s efforts have begun to revive the landscape.
“In that entire time, just because we’ve removed the reed and it’s no longer pulling up all the water, we now have this stream running through here,” she says. “It’s really, really cool to see that the water’s just coming right back — even though it hasn’t rained.”
Truebe carries Arundo across a wooden plank bridging the newly-uncovered stream.
In areas like here in Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon, it forms dense thickets that can grow over 20 feet tall, crowding out native plant life and consuming vastly more water.
While native species like velvet mesquite can survive on as little as 6 inches of rainfall a year, Arundo can use approximately 287 inches of water per acre annually.
The plant’s hollow, bamboo-like stalks can leave behind sharp shards when cut. If not completely uprooted, it quickly regrows. As a result, areas overrun by Arundo become more fire-prone, and its thirsty growth deprives native flora and fauna of vital resources.
“This Arundo just kind of grew over and suffocated everything underneath it. That’s why there’s just nothing else growing except the reed,” Truebe says.
“It’s horrible,” adds Katy Brown, another dedicated volunteer. The two took a moment to reflect on the progress they’ve made.
“Now we’re back in the growing season, so it feels disappointing,” Truebe says.
Brown shakes her head. “This is not the same. This is not the tangled mess from before.”
The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management is funding the removal project due to the wildfire risk posed by the reed — and its proximity to nearby homes.
Truebe and volunteers are seeing the fruits of their labor. A group of javelinas cross the nascent growth.
“It is hard to tell because it is so covered in this invasive plant, but there is a huge amount of water here,” Truebe says.
“It supports this little riparian ribbon of cottonwood trees and this amount of water is going to be really important for this local ecosystem. And especially because now that we’re exposing more surface water, we’re making it possible for animals to get in there to use that water.”
Volunteer Ralph Monge installed a wildlife camera on the edge of the site and has captured a breadth of animal sightings. From raccoons and coyotes to a great horned owl and a hog nosed skunk.
“Our long-term goal — we’re working with the HOAs here in this neighborhood — is to make this a site that people want to come visit and want to see the birds and on their daily walks,” Truebe says. “They can experience the natural spring here with native plants and supporting all of our native pollinators and birds and wildlife and everything else.”
Truebe herself suspects there has been an uptick in bird sightings.
“But that’s just kind of a feeling, not actually data,” Truebe says, nodding as she gazes over the site, birds chirping in the air.
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