Getting Rid of Arundo Donax

Re “Natural Enemy: Officials Struggle to Control Invasion of Waterways by Nonnative Plant,” March 12.

I agree that arundo donax should be eradicated or at least be banned from nursery sales. It chokes out native species and has an enormous rate of transpiration not typical of our dry-climate vegetation. This is thought by experts to actually be lowering the local water tables as well as altering river flow.

It is hypocritical and wrong, however, to advocate using repeated doses of herbicides to remove it. We should all be rallying against herbicides and other poisons intentionally applied to our land and water.

Also, people have tried to kill it with herbicides, and it doesn’t work. The only way to remove it is by digging out all rhizomes and waiting until any remains sprout to dig them out again.

Eradication must be started at the plant’s highest point in a given watershed, as it spreads during high water. There are vast expanses of this plant in both the Santa Clara and Ventura watersheds, and the task would be enormous.

A labor force needs to be taken to the highest point on a given watershed and begin digging. Move the crew downstream and have people continually monitor the already cleaned sections and remove any remaining arundo. Do not proceed downriver beyond a confluence stream that has not also been cleaned of all arundo. In this way, the arundo-free areas will not be recontaminated, and the project becomes possible. Finally, it would be removed from the beaches, which is much easier than digging it out of hard dirt.

If arundo removal is not done in this order, we may someday be comparing these efforts to other incidents where well-meaning folks caused unforeseen problems while unsuccessfully trying to fix another--in retrospect, perhaps less important--problem.

The proposed clearing of one small section along the Ventura River would result in a clean area for as long as they keep pouring poisons on it. We can all stand around and point at that area and say, “Look, an arundo-free area,” (keep the kids away from it!) or we can go about the real task of removal, which would take careful planning and hard labor.

ZACK GRIFFIN

Ventura