Systematic Mapping at Saguaro National Park

The crew took a break from Coronado and spent the past week working at Saguaro National Park in the Tucson Mountain District. Surrounded by Saguaro Cacti for miles in every direction, it was a nice change in latitude for us. We spent ten hour days in the desert doing systematic mapping of buffelgrass; a highly invasive/fuel loading/desert loving grass. This type of mapping involves using a GPS to track your coordinates. Each person spreads out 20 meters apart, creating a starting line. We move forward in the same direction, looking for, mapping, and removing buffelgrass. Once we hit our stopping point, we spread out in a line with different cooridinates and head in another direction; eventually creating a grid of mapped desert. At one point I looked over my shoulder to see all of us spread out, roaming through the desert like a pack of wild animals. Later on, we heard coyotes calling out to one another. It's times like these when you realize how truly connected to nature you are if you let your consciousness allow it.
When we came upon a plant or a patch of buffelgrass, we used rock hammers to remove them and piled the grasses, roots and seeds under rocks to prevent seed spread. Buffelgrass is a threat to the desert in many different ways, and projects at Saguaro National Park to remove them are ongoing. Although manual removal and chemical treatment doesn't fully eradicate the species, it slows down the population and dispersal of new plants, allowing native vegetation (such as Saguaro Cacti) a chance to thrive.
Please enjoy some photographs of our adventures as a pack of wild animals...