Tamarisk (Tamarix spp., salt-cedar) has become a serious threat to our Nation's riparian areas. Tamarisk outcompetes native vegetation and uses vast amounts of water. A large tamarisk can transpire 300 gallons of water a day.

White River National Forest employees mechanically remove tamarisk on the Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands. Typically, a small dozer uproots the trees but may cause unacceptable soil disturbance. After the tamarisk and its root ball are "popped out" of the sandy soil, the trees are pushed into piles and burned. This simple, chemical-free method has been successful, but more tamarisks could be removed if a quicker or less expensive method was available.

John "Larry" Augustson, Randall Parker, and James McBreen, all from the White River National Forest, proposed an innovative approach to remove tamarisk that would also reduce the need for herbicides and prevent excessive soil disturbance. Auguston proposed using an attachment that mounts to the front bucket of either a backhoe or a front-end loader. The attachment would grasp the tamarisk close to ground level with a pinching motion. Once the tree was secured, the tractor's hydraulic system would pull the tamarisk and root ball from the soil.

If tamarisk is cut, it vigorously resprouts, which can produce a more robust underground root system. Pulling might reduce the amount of resprouting because the sprouts have less energy reserves to draw from. Fewer sprouts would mean less herbicide would be needed to kill the sprouts. This report substantiates that resprouting is less of a problem if tamarisk is pulled.

Even though the technique was proposed by employees of the White River National Forest, MTDC tested the technique at the Cimarron National Grassland in Elkhart, KS. In the past, the Cimarron National Grassland has cut tamarisk off at the stump, piled and burned the plants, and killed the sprouts with herbicide.

After an extensive market and literature search, the best equipment match to meet the Cimarron National Grassland's operational criteria was a skid-steer attachment called the Star Hill JAWZ (invented and marketed by Starhill Solutions, Inc.). MTDC purchased the JAWZ attachment, which Cimarron National Grassland employees used to study both mechanical and chemical treatments. The cost of dozer piling and burning was not considered. The analysis of the estimated combined cost of mechanically treating the tamarisk and chemically treating sprouts provides a relative comparison, but does not report the total cost of treating each study plot.

When computing cost, MTDC assumed that specialized attachments were owned by the Forest Service, but that heavy equipment had to be rented. The assumption that all machines were rented (even though one was owned by the Forest Service) gives readers a better idea of the relative cost of pulling tamarisk. This report includes the Cimarron National Grassland's general assessment on the merits of pulling tamarisk and plans for such work in the future. Based on this small study, pulling tamarisk appears to be a reasonable alternative to cutting tamarisk if it is important to reduce the use of herbicides.