Thursday, August 07, 2008

By RICK MYERS
Staff Reporter

From a helicopter to an air boat to a "Marsh Masher," the heavy duty equipment in the Gering Civic Center parking lot Tuesday afternoon suggested something interesting was going on inside.

It was gathered for the nation's first Invasive Species Control Summit, an event that brought together resources of all types as participants met to discuss a problem that is affecting the entire country.

University experts, members of wide-ranging coalitions, government representatives, environmentalists and educators are putting their heads together to discuss an onslaught of phragmites, tamarisk, and Russian olive that is sucking much needed moisture from arid lands.

"Our goal is to talk to each other and share ideas," said Dennis Beyer, the project coordinator for the new invasive plant species control project along the North Platte River. "We need to talk about projects that have worked and some that haven't."

Mike Sarchet, one of the summit organizers, said the three days of meetings are designed to allow participants to get as many diverse educational opportunities as possible. The rapid-fire sessions are designed so participants will have the opportunity afterward and in the evening to network and discuss the information presented.

"I'm excited about the diversity," Sarchet said. "We are going to use the watershed approach and discuss how do we control species by the most cost-effective means. We also need to enlarge our coalition, ... but we have to pool our pennies."

Tim Carlson of the Tamarisk Coalition, which began in western Colorado, told how the group has now expanded into 17 states and in three years of existence has grown from 125 participants to more than 2,500.

He described the coalition as an alliance working to restore riparian lands with tamarisk, also known as saltcedar, being the "poster child." Nearly 1.6 million acres in the West and Southwest have been overrun by tamarisk. With each plant producing a half million seeds, an invasion can change stream structure, reduce human enjoyment of river systems, ruin wildlife habitat and create fuel for wildfires. Tamarisk also consumes large amounts of water, an estimated 2.4 to 2.8 million-acre feet of water, enough for 20 million people for a year.

Congress has approved a Russian olive and saltcedar control act that earmarks money for projects if matched by local governments or coalitions. States such as California are passing laws to control invasive plant species along the Colorado River. A Colorado River Watershed Assessment plan now includes seven states.

Carlson said coalitions are being created to address the growing problems of invasive plant species throughout the country, particularly in the western states. To put it in an agricultural perspective, Carlson compared the value of water consumed by invasive plant species to that of "senior" water rights, which have a considerable economic value.

Projects involving bio-control and utilizing insects to control invasive plant species are having some success, Carlson said. He said volunteer projects for plant control are also good opportunities to introduce the public to the problem of the plants and the importance of preserving water resources.