Scottsdale, AZ Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

1 requires NAOS to be permanently preserved in its natural, self-sustaining condition, and Sec. 3 bars clearing, pruning, raking and landscaping inside NAOS except for a short list of enumerated exceptions. 5 is one of those exceptions: the removal of man-made dumping piles and specified invasive, non-indigenous plants and weeds within NAOS is allowed, but only subject to specific approval by the City before the work is done, meaning a property owner cannot unilaterally decide a plant is invasive and remove it. This sits alongside the separate defensible-space allowance in Sec.

6, which permits removal of flash fuels including invasive annual grasses within 30 feet of a home in Wildland/Urban Interface areas, and the general rule in Sec. 7 that dead or dying native plants must be left in place for wildlife habitat. Native plants protected from removal are the species defined in Article V, Protection of Native Plants, Secs. 46-105 through 46-120 of the Scottsdale Revised Code, so an approved invasive-species removal in NAOS must not incidentally take out a listed native species.