Producers along the Arkansas River from Canon City to the state line past Holly, have undertaken a project to rid their land from tamarisk or salt cedar. They can't count on Mother Nature for help because tamarisk is not native to this country and that means it has no natural enemies. First brought into the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s as an ornamental shrub and as a stabilizing plant along streambeds, the plant soon escaped its "boundaries" and spread prolifically. In this country alone, the plant now infects, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, over one million acres. The fact the plant has taken over so many acres is not the primary reason behind the efforts to eradicate it. Tamarisk, which consumes, according to experts, over 800 billion gallons of water annually nationwide, is especially prevalent in the southwestern United States.

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