Delta – The bulldozer and track hoe have barely finished ripping out a section of tamarisk along the Gunnison River, and already hoofed prints intersect the muddy heavy-equipment tracks. The deer are returning.
Wildlife had abandoned large expanses of the Escalante State Wildlife Area after impenetrable walls of tamarisk had clogged access to the river over the years. Tamarisk had turned more than 50 acres of the area into a wildlife wasteland.
Now, one of the largest tamarisk-removal projects in the state is changing the area into a prototype for other efforts to conquer the damaging shrub – estimated to cover some 55,000 acres in Colorado – that can spread itself up streams at a rate of 12 miles a year and suck up to 300 gallons of water per day per bush.
The Escalante removal is being done through a large coalition of water and wildlife agencies, including the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users and the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
And this project is taking removal a step further by adding restoration that will create wetlands, ponds and expanses reseeded with native cottonwoods, willows and grasses. When the tamarisk is licked, the river will be braided through meadows as it was before the Mediterranean transplant became the scourge of Western waterways.
Similar efforts are underway in nearby Mesa County where a nonprofit coalition is working with the Bureau of Reclamation on smaller areas.
“What they are doing is really setting a precedent for how to do this in the whole region,” said Tim Carlson, director of the Tamarisk Coalition. “Most programs have forgotten about what the real goal is. It’s not just killing tamarisk. It’s about having viable wildlife habitat again.”
The Escalante project is happening due to the just-do-it attitude of DOW officer Mike Zeman, who has been watching over the area for the past decade.
“You have to actually just get on the ground and do this sort of thing,” Zeman said as he watched the heavy machines shove over and rip up tough stands of tamarisk.
These efforts are going to take another two years. Regrowth must be yanked out next year and chemicals applied to remaining roots. But effects – like the return of deer – are already being seen in an area where cottonwoods and willows are no longer hidden by tamarisk.
The Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory has been studying returning bird populations that don’t feed on or nest in tamarisk. And the Fish and Wildlife Department has been monitoring fish populations that tend to move on when tamarisk alters rivers.
The area has become a popular tour spot for other agencies interested in tamarisk eradication, including representatives from Denver Botanic Gardens.
“I’m very impressed with what they’re doing there,” said Charlie Shannon with the Western Colorado Wildlife Habitat Coalition that has been restoring tamarisk areas in Mesa County.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
