Arizona Sen. John McCain is urging the Interior and Agriculture secretaries to increase the use of the saltcedar beetle to help with eradication of invasive saltcedar tamarisk trees.
The senator says Arizona is in its 14th consecutive year of drought and bracing for what he says is the likelihood that Colorado River water deliveries will be curtailed by 2016.
He sees use of the saltcedar beetle, under the Saltcedar Biocontrol Program as a water strategy that should be accelerated now. McCain says the beetles have proven to be one of the more successful and cost-effective methods of eradicating the non-native trees.
The invasive trees are reportedly capable of consuming 200 gallons of water a day. One assessment says eradicating the trees could allow the Colorado River Basin to recover the annual amount of water used by 840,000 suburban families.
The Arizona Farm Bureau is supporting McCain’s call for use of the beetle to eradicate the invasive species.