Memories of Legal & Botanic Jargon in Bratislava, Slovakia -- News from New Mexico, USA
My favorite word learned in law school (right up there with "Res ipsa loquitor"): Phreatophyte. A long-rooted plant that absorbs water. Specifically desccribes Tamarisk (a.k.a. Salt Cedar) trees, an invader species from Russia. So I read at Yahoo.com:
New Mexico Uses New Weapon in Cedar Wars
Mon Oct 13, 9:57 AM ET
By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press Writer
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Salt cedar has invaded waterways throughout the West, and state and federal officials are targeting the thirsty, nonnative species because of dwindling water supplies and the threat of wildfire.
They've already tried chain saws, bulldozers, herbicides and fire. Their latest weapon is a small brown leaf beetle that yearns only for the pink-tipped branches of salt cedar.
The beetles have already shown their stuff in Nevada where, in one season, they ate the green off a 400-acre patch of the fast-growing trees. They also have been released at test sites in Texas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and California.
"There are very few things that eat the leaves of a salt cedar tree, and these beetles are one of them," said Dave Thompson, an entomologist at New Mexico State University.
Thompson, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in August released about 600 of the leaf beetles along the Pecos River near Artesia. It marks the first time they were released in New Mexico.
Ethical concerns: playing God, further damaging a damaged eco-system, maybe?
New Mexico Uses New Weapon in Cedar Wars
Mon Oct 13, 9:57 AM ET
By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press Writer
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Salt cedar has invaded waterways throughout the West, and state and federal officials are targeting the thirsty, nonnative species because of dwindling water supplies and the threat of wildfire.
They've already tried chain saws, bulldozers, herbicides and fire. Their latest weapon is a small brown leaf beetle that yearns only for the pink-tipped branches of salt cedar.
The beetles have already shown their stuff in Nevada where, in one season, they ate the green off a 400-acre patch of the fast-growing trees. They also have been released at test sites in Texas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and California.
"There are very few things that eat the leaves of a salt cedar tree, and these beetles are one of them," said Dave Thompson, an entomologist at New Mexico State University.
Thompson, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in August released about 600 of the leaf beetles along the Pecos River near Artesia. It marks the first time they were released in New Mexico.
Ethical concerns: playing God, further damaging a damaged eco-system, maybe?