Input sought on tamarisks

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003 | 9:41 a.m.

Comment

The public can comment on the environmental assessment for tamarisk removal until Aug. 26. The assessment is available online at www.nv.blm.gov/ vegas

Although the city of Mesquite has no juniper or pinyon pine forests, it is part of President Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative because of its tenuous desert wetlands along the Virgin River, a potential tinderbox for a wildland fire.

Before launching the project, however, a federal agency is asking for public comments on the environmental impact of removing tamarisks.

The Virgin River was once dotted with native trees such as cottonwoods and willows.

Mesquite, one of 10 pilot cities on the president's list, qualified because the wetlands area now filled with tamarisk is next to the fastest growing city in Nevada, said Kirsten Cannon of the Bureau of Land Management. The mix of salt cedar and homes poses a fire hazard both to the environment and the residents.

Mesquite's population has increased from 1,960 to 14,760 people in 12 years and the city is expected to continue to grow.

Along a 10-mile stretch of wetlands, tamarisks have invaded the Virgin River's floodplain, fueling fire threats to the communities of Bunkerville and Mesquite, BLM fire ecologist Tim Rash said.

The tamarisks grow so thick that they choke out native grasses, shrubs and trees along the riverside.

Tamarisks arrived in North America in the early 1800s and by 1854 had spread throughout the West's waterways. They arrived on the Virgin River in the 1940s, so have been established at least 60 years, Rash said.

The tamarisks came from Europe and Asia. After they gained a foothold along the river, they formed dense, flammable thickets that replaced native trees, Rash said.

When cottonwood and willow trees grew along the Virgin River, fire seldom flared up, he said.

Removing the noxious tamarisks and replanting native grasses, shrubs, cottonwoods and willows is one of the project's goals, Rash said.

The project covers 1,709 acres along the Virgin River and is expected to continue for about 10 years.

The cost of the project won't be determined until an environmental assessment is complete, Rash said. The project is expected to start this fall, restoring 100 to 250 acres of wetlands and wildlands a year.

Removing the tamarisk plants will also clean up groundwater, making it available to native species, Rash said.

Several endangered or threatened species exist near the river, including desert tortoises.

If nesting birds exist in tamarisk stands, then the plants will remain in place and scientists will monitor them.

"It's a balancing act," Rash said.

The Healthy Forests Initiative directs the Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior and the Council on Environmental Quality to develop administrative and legislative measures that will help reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire to America's forests and rangelands.