Volunteers root out an invasive plant with a fiery nature
by Mary Catherine O’Connor
10 Sept 2026Loading component...
As a kid in the 1960s, Don McEnhill could tell there was something different about the thick bamboo-like stands of vegetation he and his friends would crash through on their path to the Russian River. “You’d have no bugs on you. No spiders, no anything,” he remembers.
He didn’t know it at the time, but the lack of insects was a signal that this mysterious plant was not native to the northern California waterways around his family’s cabin in Healdsburg. It wasn’t until the early 2000s, when he started working with Russian Riverkeeper and other local conservation groups, that he learned all about this invader, Arundo donax, commonly called the giant reed. It guzzles more water than any other plant on the river. It outcompetes native plants and trees. And it possesses another unwelcome attribute: In a region increasingly prone to wildfires, the giant reed is extremely flammable.
Winding for 110 miles through California’s wine country and redwood groves on its way to the Pacific Ocean, the Russian River is a treasured waterway for fishing and recreation. Boisterous partiers float down it in inner tubes. Daredevils fling themselves into it from rope swings. Churchgoers dressed in white baptismal garments dunk themselves in its waters. The vast watershed supports Chinook and coho salmon as well as steelhead trout and river otters. Its woodlands and grasslands are home to coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions.
Rotary clubs have partnered with conservationists to remove the invasive giant reed from parts of California’s Russian River watershed where it poses the greatest fire risk.
Rick Tang Photography
Seeking to protect this habitat, environmental groups have taken aim at the giant reed, a fast-growing perennial that can reach 30 feet in height. Rotary clubs across Sonoma and Mendocino counties have partnered with conservationists for the past few years, contributing volunteers and funds for equipment.
On a Saturday morning early this summer, about 30 Rotarians, Interactors, and other community members gathered along the river to root out Arundo donax. Fanning out across a section of river, the volunteers pushed through thick brush to slice through the stalks with loppers. Then others gathered up the piles of what looked like bundles of sugar cane to be fed into a wood chipper.
“It’s everywhere you look,” says Milo Kluse, a 16-year-old Interactor from Healdsburg. “It’s pretty crazy.” Kluse, the new president of the Interact Club of Healdsburg High School, says that the club has made good headway on reducing trash along the river and was in need of a new challenge. The Arundo was happy to oblige.
Russian Riverkeeper’s education and restoration director, Birkin Newell, pointed out a cottonwood tree and a willow on either side of a freshly cut giant reed stand. “These are the true native riparian tree species that we want to have here,” he says. Unlike Arundo, the tree canopies provide shade, keeping the water cool. “They provide great food and habitat for wildlife and the Arundo provides none of that. If you’re a deer, you can’t move through [it] to browse and eat.”