Sahara Mustard

On Saturday, January 31, Friends volunteers removed Saharan Mustard from the Sycamore Canyon Trail.

Sahara Mustard has done horrible damage to the desert east of here, displacing native wildflowers and other native plants as well as creating a fire hazard where none had existed previously. Fortunately, Sahara Mustard has only established a few relatively small infestations in the Wilderness Park, so we have an excellent chance of eradicating this pest.

Two of the infestations are along the Sycamore Canyon Trail – a large one at the bottom of the trail and a small one about one-third of the way up. We first removed Saharan Mustard from these areas in January 2023. We were unable to hold a removal event in 2024, and the Saharan Mustard never came up in 2025, so this was our second removal at Sycamore Canyon.

There was less Saharan Mustard than in 2023. We tried to remove all of the mustard in these areas and filled 9 large contractor bags – compared to the 15 contractor bags we collected in 2023. It will take a few years before all the mustard is gone, as a seed bank has already been established, but we’re already seeing progress.

We hope to be having invasive plant removal events about once a month except for the hot part of the summer. If you’d like to get an announcement, just sign up for our email list.

Here are some photos from the mustard removal:

The above area afterwards. Still weeds – but no Saharan Mustard.

The Friends of the Wilderness Park held their first ever invasive plant removal event on Saturday, January 28, when a dedicated group of volunteers, including members of Boy Scout Troop 407, removed Sahara Mustard from the Sycamore Canyon Trail.

Sahara Mustard has done horrible damage to the desert east of her, displacing native wildflowers and other native plants as well as creating a fire hazard where none had existed previously. Fortunately, Sahara Mustard has only established a few relatively small infestations in the Wilderness Park, so we have an excellent chance of eradicating this pest.

Two of the infestations are along the Sycamore Canyon Trail – one at the bottom of the trail and one about one-third of the way up. Although you always miss some, we tried to remove all of the mustard in both of those areas, and we filled 15 contractor bags full of mustard! It will take a few years before all the mustard is gone, as a seed bank has already been established, but we hope to see progress soon!

We hope to be having invasive plant removal events about once a month except for the hot part of the summer. If you’d like to get an announcement, just sign up for our email list.

Here are some photos from the mustard removal: