Hunting the tamarisk

Phil Hagen

Saturday, Oct. 4, 1997 | 6:16 a.m.

If tamarisk is alien enemy No. 1, Curt Deuser's workers are the Men In Black.

When a park in the Southwest has a problem with the exotic species, it calls Deuser at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Boulder City. And the phone does ring. "Some are begging me to get scheduled," says the resource management specialist.

He got the job because it was his proposal approved last year by National Park Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. The four-year program features a nine-man crew fighting tamarisk in five states: Utah, Colorado, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

"It's the most concerted effort yet," Deuser says, "and it's gonna be a real test. We're gonna evaluate to see if this is the best way to control exotic plants in general. We think it's a good way to go."

His way is to have a centralized task force that's trained and equipped, fully devoted to tamarisk control. That, he says, is more efficient than each park unit giving "a volunteer a chainsaw and herbicide and saying, 'Go at it.'

"What the history of tamarisk control has been is a lot of people fighting for a few little bucks here and there, and then they'll get a few thousand and do something," he says. "But it's not the most bang for your buck, because no one knows what they're doing, and the methods they're using are not the most effective. ... This crew is going around trying to centralize (tamarisk control) and use the most effective methods."

The tamarisk crew, as it's humbly known, began its second year on the job this month. Its force has control projects lined up at 20 national parks -- from the Petrified Forest in Arizona to Death Valley.

"It's a big scale for what the tamarisk program is at right now nationwide, but it's small scale on what the future can hold," he says. "We can see it becoming a big program like the fire service."

The federal government has seasonal wildfire fighters called "hot shots" stationed throughout the country, trained and ready to attack. Deuser envisions that philosophy being applied to alien fighters.

"I mean really going out and attacking it," he says. "To really control this tamarisk, it would take an effort like that."

Meantime, with its $100,000 annual budget and a season that ends in May, the crew will just be hitting the "tip of the iceberg." Which is OK, he says, as it's already too late for most of the iceberg. "We just need enough money to go into areas we know are restorable -- and there's a lot of places like that."

Once they've got the alien under control, it'll be easy for a park unit to take it from there.

"Just like maintaining your yard after it's weed-free is easier than if you adopted a yardful of dandelions," he says.