Buffelgrass in the area of Kolb and Snyder roads presents a wildfire danger, Rural / Metro says.

Courtesy national park service

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Fire officials have identified an area northeast of Tucson as an example of a residential area that's badly overgrown with buffelgrass, a type of vegetation that creates a severe fire hazard.

"All that area, from Sabino Canyon Road almost all the way to Canyon Ranch, is just covered with buffelgrass," said Kevin Kincaid, a fire inspector with the Rural / Metro Fire Department. "Someone's going to have to do something." Despite several warnings from Rural / Metro, which provides fire protection for the area, residents have not cleared the buffelgrass, officials said.

Buffelgrass was introduced to this area years ago as a way to reduce erosion problems. It does do that — but it grows so rapidly it chokes out native vegetation and creates concentrations of highly combustible fuel that makes wildfires burn hotter and spread faster.

It's become a big problem throughout the Tucson area, and the situation around Kolb and Snyder roads is a perfect example of how it can quickly spread and create a dangerous fire hazard, Kincaid said.

Dave Cummings, division manager for the county Transportation Department's maintenance operations division, said part of the problem is that the county has little authority to require homeowners to remove buffelgrass.

County officials recently classified it as a noxious weed under an existing county ordinance, Cummings said. But that mainly requires the county to remove it from roadway rights-of-way and other county-administered areas, he said.

Kincaid said he has talked with several residents and homeowners association officials around the Kolb-Snyder area, with mixed success. But nothing has been done about the concentration of buffelgrass in that area, he said.

Kincaid said stronger laws and/or regulations are needed.

"The solution is government action," he said. "That's the only way that we're going to get anything done about the problem."

— Tim Ellis