Saltcedar

Inyo County Saltcedar Control Program

Seasonal Crew – 1 – 5 employees
from October to March

Saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima) is an invasive deciduous tree with reddish stems, scale-like green foliage, and feathery clusters of small pink flowers. Saltcedar can rapidly spread and come to dominate widespread areas, the tap roots grow more quickly than native species and can lower water tables. If left uncontrolled the salty leaf cast of tamarisk becomes dense enough to create soil conditions that smother native plant species, resulting in monoculture thickets of significantly reduced ecological value and less diverse riparian ecosystems. With funding from LADWP required by the Water Agreement to mitigate these effects, ICWD began a saltcedar control program in 1997 to manage the inevitable spread of this undesirable tree. The goals of our program are to avoid degradation of our vegetation communities and maintain a native riparian ecosystem along the Owens River. To meet these goals, the program has eradicated more than 1000 acres of saltcedar. However, in this heavily managed and altered landscape: we can control the spread but to aim for complete removal valley wide is not realistic.

Program Area

There are approximately 20,000 acres of saltcedar in the Owens Valley, a majority of which are the result of human caused changes to the historical water regime. The current level of funding available to the program does not allow for saltcedar control everywhere it occurs on LADWP land within the Owens Valley. A high density of saltcedar occurs in the following areas prioritized by the Water Agreement in the following order:

1. Lower Owens River channel
2. Tinemaha Reservoir and Owens Valley north of Tinemaha Reservoir
3. Perennial streams, canals, and ditches
4. Springs and seep areas
5. High water table meadows
6. Spreading areas that normally receive water
7. Spreading areas that receive water only in very high runoff years

Control Techniques

• Integrated Weed Management – We attempt to utilize all available tools, strategies, and land management practices to achieve invasive species control. Relying on only one technique or approach hinders control efforts.
• Cut Stump – The plant is cut as close to the ground as possible using a wide variety of cutting tools. The cut stump is then immediately (w/in 15 min.) sprayed with diluted Garlon 4, a systemic herbicide, to prevent vigorous resprouting.
• Basal Bark – On plants with less than a 5 cm stem diameter, the lower 30 cm are sprayed with the Garlon mix resulting in a standing snag.
• Foliar spray – The same mix of Garlon 4 and vegetable oil is applied to resprouting cut stumps.
• Biocontrol – The introduction of a natural insect predator to tamarisk. In the Owens Valley, Chinese tamarisk leaf-eating beetles are being studied for this purpose.
• Monitoring – Regardless of the technique used, no job is complete without regular monitoring. It is often necessary to spray resprouting stumps two years after they were cut.

Seasonal Crew

The Inyo County saltcedar field season is from October through March. Each winter we hire 1-5 seasonal employees to work on the saltcedar control crew. We work outside most of the season in all types of weather and conditions. Chainsaw experience is not mandatory. Strength, adaptability, optimism, and teamwork are highly valued.