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Article: Beetles battle salt cedars in Arkansas River Valley: Tamarisk leaf beetles seen as effective way to knock back invasive plants the way nature intended.
- Article from:
- The Pueblo Chieftain (Pueblo, Colorado)
- Article date:
- November 5, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Pueblo Chieftain. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Chris Woodka
Nov. 5--Imported beetles could provide a more natural, less expensive way to control tamarisk throughout the American West, and a few are already on the job in the Arkansas Valley.
Tamarisk leaf beetles, imported from the areas of central Asia where tamarisk originated, are seen by some as a way to knock back the trees by biological means.
"The beetles will never eradicate tamarisk, just suppress it," said Dan Bean, biocontrol specialist at the state Department of Agriculture Insectary in Palisade.
Testing in Colorado by the Bureau of Reclamation began near Pueblo in 1998, with the beetles working in protective ...