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Article: EDITORIAL: Plant pests.(Editorial)
- Article from:
- The Pueblo Chieftain (Pueblo, Colorado)
- Article date:
- March 26, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 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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Mar. 26--TAMARISKS, OR salt cedars as they are commonly known, are invasive plants that thrive along rivers in the West since their introduction from the Middle East in the 1800s. Tamarisks are growing on about 45,000 acres along the Arkansas River and its lower tributaries -- the Purgatoire, Apishapa and Huerfano rivers and Fountain Creek.
These plant pests anually consume about 66,000 acre-feet of water above the amount that would be lost to native vegetation. If nothing is done, future losses could be more than double that amount. A mature tamarisk tree can consume up to 200 gallons of water per day during the peak growing season, but the plant is also ...