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Drama unfolding amid beetles, birds and tamarisk

Posted by: Maven on February 6, 2010 at 6:53 am

From the Las Vegas Sun:

“Sometimes in nature, the simplest solutions lead to the most convoluted results. Take salt cedar, one of the great scourges of the West. Also known as tamarisk, it chokes out native plants, sucks up precious water like a sponge and ruins recreation spots.

It might have been good news that there’s a small, voracious insect _ the tamarisk beetle _ moving into the area from the north that, left on its own, seems destined to devour and kill salt cedars clogging washes and river banks.

But the salt cedar now has a hostage: the endangered Southwestern Willow flycatcher, a songbird that has adopted the plant as its habitat.

In the face of this ecological challenge, land managers are scraping together a desperate plan to save the bird and reinstate native ecology.

Federal agencies and conservation groups are on the hunt for money to introduce their strategy at the Lake Mohave reservoir on the Colorado River and along the Virgin River. … “

Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.

February 6, 2010 · Filed Under Colorado River & the Southwest

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