A constant hum of conversation filled the air around Donald Begley and Kim Andrews as they walked side by side, their hands brushing, and their eyes fixated on the ground.

The stream of stories from their 26 years together only paused when a clump of weeds caught their eyes.

“I found one, Kim, over here,” Begley said, excitedly fumbling for his phone.

He tapped the screen to focus the camera on a patch of brown-and-yellow vegetation. It was stinknet, also known as a globe chamomile, an invasive plant they have been trained to identify.

The pair are among the most active members of Desert Defenders, cumulatively logging over 60 volunteer hours. The program turns local residents into citizen scientists by training them to use an app to locate, identify, report and sometimes remove invasive plants flourishing in Arizona’s deserts.

“We’re new to the area and volunteering has helped us get to know where we live. It’s made us feel rooted,” said Andrews, a lifelong gardener. “It’s also a fun learning opportunity that’s a service. It feels good that we’re helping out the scientists saving our environment.”

Begley and Andrews are among the 130 volunteers that have gone through one of the five Desert Defender training sessions since the start of the program in December 2019. These defenders have collected over 6,100 data points, which have helped map invasive species in Phoenix.

“Doing this work is a heavy lift and it’s not something a small group of land managers can do,” said Mary Fastiggi, the Parsons Field Institute coordinator for the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy. “Since everyone has a phone, the more people that can get out there the more we can do. When you have tools like that available it democratizes science.”

Running the Desert Defenders is a conglomerated effort by the Arizona Sustainability Alliance, Central Arizona Conservation Alliance, the Maricopa County Parks and Recreation Department, the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy and the White Tank Mountains Conservancy.

“We wanted to put all the efforts of groups tangentially doing invasive species work together. That’s how Desert Defenders was born,” said Annia Quiroz, the engagement coordinator for the Central Arizona Conservation Alliance, an initiative of the Desert Botanical Garden. “It’s a big mashup of all the different efforts put into one program.”

Before the pandemic, Desert Defenders commonly had “pull days,” when volunteers ventured into nature to remove pinpointed plants. Three of the more recent outings targeted invasive species on Piestewa Peak. So far, the defenders have cleared a quarter of an acre on the Phoenix landmark.

“One of the main priorities for the program is to have impact on the ground,” Quiroz said. “While the pandemic is slowing us down right now, we will hopefully move back into a place where we are removing these species.”

The defenders target seven invasive species, six of which are listed as noxious weeds by the Arizona Department of Agriculture. The three most commonly found in the more than 6,100 data points collected by Desert Defenders are stinknet, fountain grass and Sahara mustard.

“We love to explore. Kim and I always have an intrinsic curiosity about what’s on the next hill and the next hill, but more than that we love our community and we want to help,” Begley said. “These plants are making the wildfires worse and someone’s got to do something about it.”

Wildfires in Arizona this year have already burned across more land than in the last two years combined. According to data from the state’s Department of Forestry & Fire Management, approximately 1,600 wildfires have torched more than 700,000 acres.

“These invasive plants can add to the desert’s fuel load making it easier for wildfires to start and spread,” said Willie Sommers, the invasive plant program coordinator for the department. “Reducing these non-native fuel loads mitigates the chances for wildfires.”

Quiroz said defender data is shared with the department in the hopes of helping locate hot spots and priority locations.

“We’re constantly looking to our partners to share information and resources because weeds recognize no boundaries and it takes a real collaborative effort to control the spread of these plants,” Sommers said. “It takes a lot of effort to keep track of so much land. The strength in numbers approach of citizen scientists is great because the more eyes that are out there the better.”

Later this month the leadership of the Desert Defenders program will meet to plan future events. Announcements will be posted on the program’s event page.

“Life is an adventure and we volunteer to keep it that way,” Andrews said.

Anton L. Delgado is an environmental reporter for The Arizona Republic/azcentral. Follow his reporting on Twitter at @antonldelgado and tell him about stories at [email protected].

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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