LUBBOCK AVALANCHE tie Tell Me a Story Dae The Tsarina's Music” comes to the rescue. BA? | Development lan turning Is North Lubbock into one of BiGiy Bonk A New Front biggest land plays in years. D1 SUNDAY AUGUST 7, 2005 79TH YEAR, NO. 50 ELUOTT BLACKBUN W AVALANCHE JOURNAL, opin at wi bbockele com Plant, insect and groundwater researchers are hopeful that the salt cedar leaf beetle will spread around the West and chew up millions of acres of the water-guzzling salt cedar tree. BY ELUOTT BLACKBURN ‘AYALANCHE-JOURNAL roundwater experts across the country are putting a lot of faith in a little beetle. The salt-cedar leaf beetle, a tiny winged inseet native to parts of Asia and the Mediterranean, has been studied for the past decade as a way to battle back against trees guzzling billions of gallons of Western groundwater. There are no hard numbers, but some estimate an acre of tamarisk, also known as salt cedar, can remove between 300,000 and 1.6 million gal: ons of water in a summer growing season in Texas. The Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, which sup: plies 80 percent of Lubbock’s water, is battling 11,000 acres of the tree around Lake Meredith Fire won't stop salt cedar. Bull dozing just makes it mad, one water manager said. Herbicide, the most effective manmade solution, ean cost millio But docile, diminutive Diorhabda elongata dines exclusively on the plant. There's just not enough money at Fort Knox to keep doing this,” Okla ELUOTT BLACKBURN V AVALANCHE JOURNAL Repent warwhsootone ‘Adult beeties, larvae and eggs all clutch to the thin leaves of a salt cedar plant. Lar= vvae and adults feed on the leaves, turning a healthy tree from bright green to brown. ‘Thornton, manager of natural resoure- we're in trouble. es for the Colorado River Municipal Salt cedar has dogged water district Water District, said of salt cedar managers in the Southwest for years, control costs. “We're going to get one ‘The Asian ornamental plant was shot at this, and if biocontrol isn’t the silver bullet when we knock it back, ‘SEE BEETLES, PAGE ASvw lubbockenline.com BEETLES: Researchers hope tiny bugs can help control huge problem FROM PAGE At installed along riverbeds and railroad tracks in the early 19th century to curb erosion, but quickly proved to be its own po- tent environmental threat, ‘Trees can gulp up to 200 gal: Jons of groundwater a day from water as deep as 100 feet during the growing season, and the tree's mineral- ized, thin leaves deposit salt and ruin the earth beneath its branches. It spreads farther and taps deeper water tables than native cottonwoods and willows, boast- ing a greater tolerance for salty soils and no native enemies, said Fred Nibling, a researcher for the US. Bureau of Reclamation, ‘That's a big problem in arid areas like West ‘Texas, where groundwater is becoming an important element of securing long-term water supplies. The Colorado River Municipal Wa- ter Distriet is battling 20,000 to 30,000 acres of the tree in a 26- county area around Odessa and Big Spring, Thornton said. “Its impact on water resources and water quality probably is almost impossible to define,” ‘Thornton said. ‘Aerial herbicide sprays are the only effective manmade weapon, district managers said, but ean cost more than $200 an aere to spray. Because salt ce- dar grow thick around streams, there are environmental con- cerns about how safe some areas are for spray. So for the last decade, sites around the West have nurtured and studied the salt cedar leaf beetle, hoping that the tiny green insect will prove a cost- effective way to keep the tree population in check. ‘The process to introduce the NEWS / WEATHER * ‘It’s just like an explo- sion of these beetles that’s stripped all of these salt cedar of any- thing green.’ Raymond Carruthers Invasive-species expert insect has been about as long and complicated as it might take to develop a new herbicide, said Raymond ‘Carruthers, an inva- sive-species expert working with the U.S. Department of Agricul- ture’s Agricultural Research Seience office, An estimated $2 million to $3 million from sev- eral different federal agencies has been invested throughout the past 10 years in the project, but once the beetles get started, there's no cost to maintain them, Carruthers said. Small colonies of the beetle are vulnerable to weather and other inseets. Northern beetles brought to Lake J.B. Thomas, near Big Spring, starved to death when the shorter days confused the insects and they began hi- bernating instead of eating. The insects have been care- fully studied to ensure they don’t develop a taste for any crops or native plants, grov- ing and munching tamarisk in quarantined labs. Researchers faced even more hurdles when ‘an endangered bird was found nesting in salt cedar stands. But the beetle is producing big results in areas like Nevada, where the population has swept through a 100-mile area of salt cedar, Carruthers said. LUBBOCK AVALANCHEJOURNAL SuNoAY, AUGUST? 2005 AS “Its just like an explosion of these beetles that’s stripped all of these salt cedar of anything green,” Carruthers said. “It took a thousand beetles to get it started, and now there are liter- ally billions of them.” The beetles are spreading across a small section of a pri- vate ranch outside of Big Spring under the watchful eye of USDA and other local and federal researchers. If they continue to do well, they'll be taken to Fort Stockton in a few years, and ul- timately sent anywhere there's salt cedar in Texas, said Texas A&M Agriculture Extension en- ‘tomologist Allen Knutson, A group of beetles on fed- eral land where the Canadian River enters Lake Meredith is spreading slowly, extension entomologist Gerald Michels Jr said. ‘Texas researchers doubted the beetle will replace herbi cide. It takes thousands of the beetles, and a couple of years, to eliminate a salt cedar tree. “L don’t think they'll ever be able to attack a growing stand of adult trees and gnaw them down to the ground,” said John Wil: liams, a manager of natural re sources for the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority. But Williams and other ex: perts hope the insects will be a cheap, effective tool to keep salt cedars in check. “We're always going to have salt cedar with us — there's no way to get rid of it” said Jeremy Hudgeons, an A&M masters stu- dent tracking the bugs in West ‘Texas, “But (we're) getting a way tomanage it.” To.conmen enh sty: lt iucburtbocteina com ¥ 786-722 tien wiioms@ubbockonine.com 768-8717