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Show Week 1 V i- r 'H 1 Week 2 4, . 1 1V &. ;'): . The beetle and de-leaf a tree completely in four weeks, taking about three year cycles' to completely kill the tamarisk plant. 41 fr 1 00,000 MILE ' J YtAH fvWtM I MAIM LIWII CU fYnnn I T THE BEST COVERAGE IN AMERICA. MOT MeMI A an. 1 00,000 mile 5YEAR9 OF ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE Open Monday - Friday 8 am to 6 pm, Saturday 9 am to NoonService Department Closed. Main Office 722-5107, Budget Lot 722-1600, Used Cars & Trucks 722-4100 7 "', t r s M 41 Week 3 1 Week 4 bbs j 43K, U-3797 100,000 mile gYEAflS Of COURTESY THANSPOHTAnON' 1 Vernal Express and Uintah Basin Standard Tamarisk Saltcedar Leaf Beetle eats until the pesky plant dies What's green and thick and Uintah County? even saltcedar, then all would be and in good numbers where we grows like a weed along most If your answer was tamarisk correct. Yes, it grows like a weed, put them last year." rivers in the desert regions of or the local slang "tamarik" or Yes, it is considered by Utah and Belliston explained that in Lf .i Jti -mih - -v v-.m- .i , From an egg to a pupae to a bettle. The life cycle may be short but the effectivness of the insect is good for getting rid of the noxious weeed - tamarisk. Si? T .. - , t - w- r ? - ... 1 Most of the destruction to the is in a bettle form. s Once the insects are matured, -' d" u"'y 'uuu "- ' .) !iu x iir&JbiiEu Onnncing MOTORSPORTS 7 V i j - . 1 : i I ) y 0 K1500.35K, U-3552 tamarisk is done while the insect ! K ' y , I . 1. V 4 r'UA' f I J- .) P i'.-: hundreds of them eat away on the T7 Calvin Murray Leon X r1- nr y : , -I Hl I .... : , 1 T 1 nir if 1 Hnnll I Wednesday, July Uintah County as a noxious weed and county weed officials are starting to fight back. "We did an unofficial survey recently and we estimate Uintah County has some 10,000 acres of the Tamerisk tree," explained Milt Billings, director of Uintah County noxious weed depart- ment. "And that's why we are trying to do something about the problem now. " Billings explained that last year a local scout troop went to Moab and captured some 100,000 saltcedar leaf beetles that have been shown to defoliate the tamarisk plant. The beetles infest a stand of tamarisk bushes and eat all the leaves before mov- ing on to another stand. In three weeks a tree can be completely defoliated. The insect comes out of China and Pakistan and has taken quite a few years of testing before it was recently approved. "We wouldn't want to bring in an insect to kill the tamarisk only to find it it also eats alfalfa," ex- plained Billings. "We don't want it to eat anything but the tree and so far we are very pleased with the results of this insect." To date, insects have been started alongthe Colorado River near Moab, along the Sevier River in Delta and now along the Green River in Uintah County by county weed departments, as well as in two other locations by Dinosaur National Monument and the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge in a joint effort to deal with the problem. There was some concern that the insects would not make it through the harsh winter in Uintah County last year, but assistant weed supervisor Nate Belliston stated, "They are there tamarisk leaf, their food of choice "NT Nielsen Rob Reynolds v i I u C9 Delta, crews released tne insect to start with only one location and now they have found the insect in tamarisk trees almost 80 miles away. He reported that in Moab, the insect was released along the Colorado River just north of Moab and the insect has traveled some 50 miles to the north near 1-70 and they are expecting the same kind of spread here. It takes about three years of insect infestation to completely kill the tamarisk tree, with the saltcedar beetle depriving the tree of more and more of it's leaves each year until it finally dies. The life cycle for the insect is quite short. The adult beetle life cycle is 21 days. The eggs hatch in five to six days, the larvae requires about 22 days to fully develop to a pupae, and seven days to develop from a pupae to an adult insect. It is at the three- week adult stage that most of the damage is done to the tree, The insect also needs 14 hours of sunlight a day to survive which makes for a short season in the Uintah Basin. Weed control of- ficials were pleasantly surprised and pleased when they found this springthat the eggs had survived the harsh winter and started the cycle over for the summer once again. Tamarisk is native to North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It was used as an ornamental bush that could be used for river bank stabiliza- tion. It commonly infests lake and stream banks as well as pastures and rangeland. Large plants can soak up 200 gallons of water per plant per day which equates to huge amounts oi wa- ter when officials figure there 16, 2008 are 10,000 acres of the plant in Uintah County alone. Biological control of the plant is an option, but when county officials looked at the spraying costs, the chemicals alone were estimated to cost $200 an acre in 2005. When looking at over $2 million to control the problem with chemicals, or using a free insect to accomplish the same result, the county was happy to try the insect. "What are we going to do: with the river banks when the tamarisk is all gone is our next question," said Billings. "Restoration "Res-toration of these areas are what we are talking about with the BLM, National Park and state officials as a cooperative weed management group." Discussions have favored replanting re-planting the areas with willows and Cottonwood trees. "Hopefully the bugs will take off and eat enough so that we have to worry about replanting these areas," concluded Billings. iJUU 62K, U-3451 :-'-! I !N U Doug Murray |