10-05-2025
Mesa man awarded for helping maintain Tonto National Forest from his backyard
The Brief
Mesa man Don Pike won an award for Weed Manager of the Year for his work in the Tonto National Forest.
Almost every morning, Pike sneaks out of his backyard fence to pull invasive weeds like buffel, fountain grass and stinknet.
He has been pulling weed for nearly 12 years.
MESA, Ariz. - If you ever pull weeds in your yard, you know what a pain it is.
Now imagine pulling weeds in the Tonto National Forest.
That's the task a Mesa man is taking on, and he's making some pretty good progress in a unique spot in the East Valley, where Mesa meets the Tonto National Forest.
Roughly 3,000,000 acres of federally protected land, slowly but surely, is being eaten alive by invasive plants.
So how do you tackle such a big problem? One weed at a time.
Dig deeper
Almost every morning, Don Pike slips through a barbwire fence from his backyard into the Tonto National Forest.
He's not here to hike, he's here to hunt.
Don is searching for dozens of invasive weeds like buffel, fountain grass and the new one: stinknet, which can wipe out native plants and raise the fire risk.
That's why you won't find any near his home and the 14,000 acres where the neighborhood meets nature.
What they're saying
After a half-mile hike, Don spots a patch of bad weeds growing along a wash.
"When I'm by myself I just walk. I'm walking, and I walk off trail. So if I see one or if it's a big patch like this I will put it on the map," he said.
The plants are mostly dried out but still able to spread by the roots or by the seeds.
"Well, you have to keep coming back. You can't just remove it and then leave it," he said.
Local perspective
Don maps his progress and highlights areas he still has to hit, either pulling the weeds by hand, digging them out with a shovel or using herbicides.
He knows all too well there's only so much one man can do.
He says while he can clear spots, there's no way to clear the whole forest, but he keeps at it every morning, weed by weed.
Why? Because he believes someone should.
Why you should care
He has been pulling weeds out here for 12 years with the help of other volunteers and last year won a unique award for his efforts: Arizona's Weed Manager of the Year.
You could almost call it a labor of love.
"I put a lot of work into it and a lot of rewards for the show. I'm happy to get the recognition, but it's just what I love to do," said Pike.
