HCM 2006
PAB/AH Page 1 Natural Resources, Energy & Water
ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Fifty-sixth Legislature
First Regular Session
HCM2006: urging eradication; salt cedars; waterways
Sponsor: Representative Griffin, LD 19
Committee on Natural Resources, Energy & Water
Overview
Requests that Congress appropriate monies to eradicate salt cedars from Arizona waterways and
develop solutions to control the proliferation of salt cedars with the U.S. Department of the Interior
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
History
The salt cedar or tamarisk is a shrub/tree native to Eurasia. It was introduced in the United States
as an ornamental plant in the early 1800s. By the 1920s, salt cedars had escaped cultivation and
become an ecological threat because their seeds easily travel by wind and water and germinate
quickly. The U.S. Geological Survey recognizes the salt cedar as an introduced species with a
widespread invasive status in the U.S. Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture's National Invasive Species Center also has identified the salt cedar as
a terrestrial invasive species.
The salt cedar is 5-20 feet tall and is a habitat generalist that can grow in conditions of high
salinity, submergence or drought. A single plant may consume up to 200 gallons of water per day
depending on the available water supply, preventing native plants from receiving adequate water.
The lack of protein in salt cedars makes them unfit for consumption by wildlife, and their leaves
and stems discharge salt into the ground, which can affect the wellbeing of surrounding plants.
Nonetheless, salt cedars can be used as nesting sites for birds and provide pollen to honeybees.
There have been several recent efforts to manage and eradicate salt cedars. In 2006, Congress
passed the Salt Cedar and Russian Olive Control Demonstration Act, which appropriated
$80,000,000 to the Secretary of the Interior to assess and develop management strategies for
salt cedars in western states until 2010 (Public Law 109-320). Arizona's Nonnative Vegetation
Species Eradication fund was established in 2019 to finance projects to eradicate salt cedars
(Laws 2019, Chapter 269). Additionally, the FY 2023 budget appropriated $5,000,000 to eradicate
salt cedars along a stretch of the Gila River (Laws 2022, Chapter 313).
Provisions
1. States that the Arizona Legislature urges Congress to appropriate monies to eradicate salt
cedars from Arizona waterways and requests the development of solutions by the U.S.
Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to control the proliferation
of salt cedars.
2. Directs the Arizona Secretary of State to transmit the memorial to the President of the United
States, the President of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives,
the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and each member of Congress from Arizona.
☐ Prop 105 (45 votes) ☐ Prop 108 (40 votes) ☐ Emergency (40 votes) ☐ Fiscal Note