TAMARISK CONTROL

T he control of tamarisk, or salt cedar (Tamarix ramosissima), is a controversial issue. There are several reasons for this. One is the presumed futility of control efforts. If tamarisk control is a lost cause,why devote precious money and labor to the effort? Another is that in areas that are heavily infested and have a long history of manipulation, it is often difficult, and may even be impossible, to determine just what the historic ecosystem was like. In addition there are questions about the recovery of native vegetation and recolonization by animals on sites from which tamarisk has been cleared. Under what conditions will the community recover more or less on its own? When is a more active program of restoration called for? What techniques are most likely to be effective? Despite these uncertainties, in 1986 we initiated a tamarisk control project in a heavily infested 10-hectare wetland in the Coachella Valley Preserve in Riverside County, California. While the project is just nearing completion, the results so far have been encouraging, and suggest that, while complete and perpetual eradication of tamarisk is unlikely in most situations, control followed by restoration of historic vegetation is a viable option in many watersheds.