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Ranchers Team Up to Restore Rio Grande Landscapes
By Dee Ann Cameron, Public Affairs Specialist
On Harry Miller’s place at Candelaria on the Rio Grande, the
remains of an old cotton gin is one of the few reminders that this was once
farming country. Today, along a 200 mile stretch of the Rio Grande, sometimes
called the Forgotten River, the riverside landscape has been invaded by salt
cedar (Tamarix ramissisima), a shrub-like plant native to the Mid-east and North
Africa. Rather than see their lands become a botanical monoculture, Miller and
his neighbors are ready to fight the invasion of the water guzzling invasive
plant.
The good news is that some help may be coming. The US Department of
Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) recently awarded the
Rio Grande Institute (RGI) with an $184,000 grant to work with the Chihuahuan
Desert Resource Conservation and Development (CDRC&D) to develop and implement
control strategies for salt cedar on riverside properties near Ruidosa,
Candelaria and Indian Hot Springs in Presidio and Hudspeth Counties.
Officially named the La Junta Salt Cedar Control Project, it is a cooperative
initiative led by local landowners, the CDRCD, and the RGI with funding provided
by the NRCS under its Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI).
“For this restoration project, we will be combining chemical and biological
agents for controlling infestations of salt cedar,” said RGI’s Tyrus Fain, of
Marathon. “Landowner participation is the key to treating over 15,000 acres of
grazing and farmland at selected locations along the Rio Grande.”
The project, the only one approved for Texas this year, has a specific focus –
control salt cedar and keep it under control. The managers contemplate combining
application of chemical and biological agents into infestations of salt cedar at
selected locations along a 55-mile stretch of the Rio Grande border between the
Rio Grande/Rio Conchos confluence and the twin cities of Presidio, Texas and
Ojinaga, Chihuahua, and upstream at sites near Indian Hot Springs on the Rio
Grande in Hudspeth County.
First brought to California in the late 1800s as an ornamental plant and later
planted in erosion control projects, salt cedar has become a plague along rivers
in the western United States. It is degrading millions of acres of farmland and
pasture, crowding out native trees and plants that provide habitat for wildlife.
The adverse impact the invasion is having on the quality of soils and the flow
of springs and streams is estimated in billions of dollars each year. The per
acre cost of controlling this plague have been out of reach of many landowners.
Miller and neighbors, such as Concepcion Prieto of Ruidosa, Frank Kroy and the
George Parada family upstream in Hudspeth County, are determined to stop the
spread of this aggressive plant on their property and perhaps restore some of
their land for farming, grazing and riparian habitat. They have looked far and
wide for advice and help on a cost-effective control strategy from experts and
organizations working in other infested areas. Last year, Kroy hosted a workshop
at his ranch in Hudspeth County to US and Mexican landowners, scientists,
government specialists and non-governmental organizations.
Following the workshop, Mark Donet of Chihuahuan Desert RC & D, helped the RGI
submit an application for a grant offered under the Grazing Lands Cooperative
Initiative of NRCS for an area-wide effort to control invasive plant species.
The $184,000 grant award will cover roughly half of the estimated cost for a
three year control program.
“Planning and execution of the work will proceed in consultation with
potentially impacted stakeholders on both sides of the border,” Donet said. “A
parallel project at sites on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande will be
welcomed.
“Through consultation with neighboring stakeholders and experts in Mexico, this
project can lay the groundwork for conservation planners on both sides of the
border better understand the value of combining aerial application of herbicide
combined with the release of biological agents as a long term sustainable salt
cedar control strategy,” Donet added.
Biological control will include the release of a natural predator that feeds on
tamarisk in its native habitat, the Asian leaf beetle (Diorhabda elongata).
Testing at the USDA-Agriculture Research Service (ARS) site at Big Spring, Texas
has proven very effective. Since the insects reproduce and spread voluntarily
once released, the cost for treating a sizeable area is negligible.
“In areas where the cost of an acre of land is measured in a few hundred
dollars, people are reluctant to invest in one of the more expansive control
techniques such as aerial spraying or mechanical removal,” according to Fain.
“We believe the combined chemical and biological approach can be very a very
cost effective approach to salt cedar control.”
The eradication techniques will be based on proven positive experience with
aerial application of herbicides on the Pecos River, use of hand treatment of
plants with herbicide in Big Bend National Park and the use of federally and
state approved biological control agents in Nevada and Big Spring, Texas. The
specific sites will be determined by landowner interest in participating,
technical considerations and funds available.
Approximately thirty-five U.S. ranchers and farmers who have Rio Grande water
rights have been invited to participate in the project and to monitor its impact
on habitat, soils and water resources.
It is hoped that information gathered in this pilot project can be used to
develop tamarisk control strategies throughout the 330,000 square mile Rio
Grande/Rio Bravo basin, and with increased cooperation and support between the
US and Mexico on control measures along the international boundary.
Other partners in the project include Texas Parks and Wildlife, US Fish and
Wildlife Service, Texas Cooperative Extension, Trans-Pecos Water Trust and Sul
Ross State University.
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