Volunteers Pitch-in to Fight Colorado Invasive

About 15 volunteers recently attended a demonstration in McElmo Canyon that showed ways to control tamarisk.  The Dolores Tamarisk Action Group and the Dolores Colorado Soil Conservation District hosted a tamarisk eradication demonstration at property owned by Audrey Allmon Bridgewater just west of the Road 21 and G intersection.

The volunteers then pitched-in to help remove plants within McElmo Canyon by stump-cutting and basil-bark spraying procedures. Individuals participating in the event represented various local groups or agencies, such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Southwest Seed Inc., Animas Valley Arborist, Southwest Weed Control and Montezuma County.

“Part of this demonstration is to show that tamarisk can be controlled,” said Steve Miles, a Dolores Tamarisk Action Group organizer.

Some other methods of control include undercutting, goat grazing and applying chemicals, which can cost between $100 and $150 per gallon, Miles added.

Tamarisk exists at about an 8,000-foot elevation and below. The water-thirsty salt cedars can consume up to 4 million acre-feet of water annually in 17 Western states. A single, large plant can consume up to 240 gallons of water per day, according to Miles.

Learn more about NRCS in Colorado

“It’s such a dominant plant that it chases everything else out,” he said. “I have yet to find a redeeming factor for it other than climate control.”

The nonnative trees are prolific in that they can reproduce by seed and through the root system, or simply by a live stem falling to the ground.

Trees have invaded nearly every watershed in Colorado and often kill native plants by leaving behind salt soil, Miles said.

Roots can grow to a depth of 80 feet, and seeds are produced year-round.

In 2006, the D-TAG is planning a second demonstration to include foliar spraying, which can only be effective in the spring.
From a Cortez Colorado Journal story by Steve Grazier