Big Country RC&D Area

"A safe healthy environment having a strong economy and sustaining the natural resources"

Counties Served

Borden Fisher Garza Glasscock Howard Jones

Kent Mitchell Nolan Scurry Sterling Taylor

For Information Contact: Big Country RC&D Area Riley Kitchens, Coordinator P.O. Box 1114 119 E. Thrid Street, Suite 304 Sweetwater, TX 79556-1114 Phone (325) 235-4300 Fax (325) 236-6625

Biological Salt cedar Control

In the spring of 2006, Big Country RC&D initiated a biological salt cedar control program in Scurry, Borden, and Fisher counties. Working in partnership with the Upper Colorado and Upper Clear Fork Soil and Water Conservation Districts, as well as local NRCS field offices, two demonstration sites were established in each of the three counties. A small number of beetles (approximately 45) were obtained from Dr. Allen Knutson, professor and extension entomologist with the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center at Dallas for each of the six sites. These beetles collected at a nursery site near Big Spring, were released into cages at each site to keep them together and protect them until they could reproduce into adequate numbers for release from the cages. The beetles lay eggs and multiply approximately three times each growing season. In five of the six cages, the beetles reproduced rapidly and defoliated all salt cedar plants in the cage forcing technicians to release the beetles to feed on plants outside the cages. Success will be more accurately measured this spring as the beetles come out of their dormant wintering state and start to reproduce again. According to Knutson, some of the other demonstration sites in the state have lost their beetles during the over wintering dormant phase. To increase the chances of winter survival of the beetles, an additional four hundred beetles were collected from the nursery site and released onto the regrowth of the salt cedars in the six cages this past fall. We are anticipating this spring’s results at the six sites to determine if our beetles have survived the winter. Word of this project has spread and this spring we have had requests to expand the project to Nolan, Kent, and Garza counties. A future goal of the project is to establish a nursery site in all of our counties that are interested in participating. These nursery sites will be used to propagate the beetles and allow local landowners to collect beetles at field days and transport them to problem salt cedar infested areas on their land.

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