Written by Eric Fiorvante, Wild Stew Field Crew member.
Our second hitch of 2025 brought the Wild Stew Field Crew back to Queen Creek, outside of the town of Superior, to continue treatment of invasive plants in the canyon. We made a lot of progress, focusing on the remaining large non-native trees in the riparian corridor, creating more space for native species as well as eliminating a lot of potential fuel for wildfires.
The first full day of the hitch was dedicated to the removal of Chinese Pistache by falling them with chainsaws, cutting them up and scattering the pieces away from the creek, and spraying the stumps with herbicide to prevent a reinfestation. It was a great day full of felling in a particularly scenic part of Queen Creek.
From there, the majority of the week was spent finishing the removal of Canary Island Date Palms, a terrifically ornery species. The crew split up to tackle several major stands of palms, cutting them down several at a time, cutting the thorn-covered fronds off, hauling the fronds out of the creek, and bucking up the rest of the “wood”.
The hitch was rounded off with a final sweep of the project area to ensure nothing had been missed. Fortunately, only a single Tamarisk, two Palm seedlings and two small Mexican Palo Verde were found and treated, completing initial treatment in Queen Creek!
