SAFFORD — Only five people showed up — two of whom were media — to hear about the status of one of the biggest impacts to the Gila River.
Last Thursday, at the ranch house on Eastern Arizona College’s Discovery Park Campus, Dr. Sarah Sayles, executive director for Gila Watershed Partnership, gave an update on the tamarisk leaf beetle’s progress in the Gila Valley.
The beetle feasts on the leaves of the tamarisk tree, which is also known as salt cedar. The salt cedar is an invasive species along the Gila Riverbanks and blocks out native species of plants.
“I think there was this underlying idea that the beetle was going to solve all our problems with the tamarisk. And that’s just not the case,” Sayles said.
Sayles said if all goes well, the beetle will take down about 80 percent of the trees, which means Gila Watershed Partnership and other groups interested in restoring the area to native vegetation, will have to participate in some manual removal.
However, that’s now become a problem due to two factors. The first is funding — money granted to the organization from the Walton Foundation more than a decade ago is long gone. And Sayles said it’s challenging to find other grant sources that size.
The other is the Endangered Species Act.
“And it’s not really the ESA itself, but it’s the people who administer it in the state of Arizona,” Sayles said. “They are very anti-tamarisk removal.”
According to Sayles, U.S. Fish and Wildlife believes that endangered species such as the willow flycatcher have adapted to using tamarisk as habitat and therefore want to leave it in place.
But Sayles says such a move is bad for the river and the surrounding environment, due to salt cedar preventing anything else from growing, especially native plants. And the excessive amount of water tamarisk uses.
GWP is planting islands of multiple native species when tamarisk is eliminated, to bring health back to the river and environment, but to also protect the surrounding area from fire and flooding.
Sayles said she will continue to do more public outreach to continue keeping the public up-to-date on the progress of the beetle and GWP’s efforts.
