As Don Pike goes for a daily walk, he covers his brown hiking boots, grabs his walking stick and bucket hat, and goes outside. Ten feet later, he carefully slides over barbed wire and enters the Tonto National Forest. Unlike the rest of the tonto, where the ground between native plants and trees is covered in dry grass, the earth is pale, unfriendly and barren.
That's because Mr. Pike is pulling weeds.
“I deleted them so I can't find any of them here in this area,” said Pike, 84, a retired Maine who looked better at his beloved desert and installed floor-to-ceiling windows in his living room.
Mr. Pike is at war with buffel grass and fountain grass, two invasive species It spreads across the Sonoran desert, suffocating native plants, increasing the risk and intensity of wildfires, and threatens a vibrant ecosystem.
He began hunting thick grass. Almost 15 years ago. Since then, he estimates that he and his team of volunteers have cleared 550 acres out of the roughly 14,000 acres they oversee. In 2024, he won him the title of Arizona Weed Manager of the Year.
Work by volunteers like Pike has always been a key supplement to managing federal land, according to government workers who say their programs have been underfunded for years. But volunteers like Pike are more important than ever, as the Trump administration and so-called government efficiency have launched mass shootings of federal workers.
“It will be important for federal agencies to find ways to attract people,” Pike said on his back porch in March. “There are a lot of people who want to participate, especially those who have a lot of skills.”
