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This little Asian beetle has proven to be hugely beneficial in American Southwest—and what’s more, it was introduced on purpose with the goal of irrevocably changing the landscape.Diorhabda carinulata, or the tamarisk beetle, can explode into huge populations very quickly. It’s agressive enough to overwhelm, defoliate and kill tamarisk plants—and that is its advantage.When I was a teenager in Boy Scouts, our troop would pick a river somewhere in the canyonlands of Western Colorado or Utah each year and canoe downstream. As one of the more challenging backcountry ventures, the rule was that there must be one adult chaperone per youth, and I always went with my dad, an outdoorsman in his own right and environmentalist who would teach me about the plants, wildlife, and dramatic rock formations around us.(Pictured: Green river near Canyonlands in Utah)Camping on sandy river banks and traveling between 70 and 100 miles each trip, it was a 3 day journey over some of the most stark and picturesque landscapes I’ve encountered: pink, beige or rust-red cliffs (depending on which river we were on), thousands of feet high, set against a pale blue sky and and dotted with swarms of cicadas, swallows, ducks, cormorants and lazy circling vultures high up overhead.(Yampa River near Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado)We spent a lot of time joking, spraying squirt guns and screwing around on our canoes, but long stretches of each trip were spent sitting in profound silence on the river, under the merciless sun, enjoying the absolute lack of any sign of human inhabitance.(Colorado River near Arches National Park in Utah)That is, except for the tamarisk. Planted in the Southwest in the 1800s with the goal of erosion control, Eurasian tamarisk, or saltcedar, proved to be one of the worst ecological disasters to hit the Colorado Plateau. With deep roots and leafless water-conserving branches, a tamarisk plant resembles a juniper or cypress tree, although it is an angiosperm. Well-adapted to the desert, and without natural enemies in North America, it spread throughout the canyonlands and beyond, conquering the landscape. The native riparian willows and cottonwoods were displaced, and the aggressive, salt-tolerant invading tamarisk drained the water table from the side-canyons and gulleys that were once hotspots for desert biodiversity. We’d canoe past miles-long stretches of canyon in which it seemed like tamarisk was the only thing growing at all.(Colorado river)It isn’t necessarily an ugly plant, but it’s never a good thing to create monoculture, and deserts happen to be the one of the most fragile types of ecosystem to begin with. Additionally, by draining the water table above the canyons, tamarisk proved a headache for farmers in a region where water is a precious commodity and a subject of constant litigious conflict.The tamarisk beetles were introduced to North America in 2001. After extensive research to ensure that they would successfully suppress their target plants and wouldn’t kill anything else, they were set loose by the United States Department of Agriculture in a decision that proved somewhat controversial.It did not take the insects long to get going. The larvae, which look like caterpillars, completely cover infested plants and quickly chew whole branches down to stems. The plants, sensing a crisis, will react by yellowing and dropping remaining foliage in an attempt to starve the bugs off, but it’s too late—the beetles are well adapted to exploit their hosts and at this point have already pupated, hatched as beetles and moved on.Tamarisk can regrow its foliage after the beetles finish with it, but it spends precious energy reserves and experiences some dieback in its battle with the bugs. It takes a few waves of infestation to kill a tamarisk stand completely. Total eradication is actually not necessary—the ideal would be for the beetle to knock the plants’ invasiveness back to a low level and allow it to “play nice” with competing species, leaving a few scattered individuals here and there, at which point the beetle populations will settle down into an equilibrium with the no-longer-ubiquitous tamarisk.(Colorado river in Arizona)I went back to the Colorado River in 2016, now 31 years old, volunteering for an organization called the Grand Canyon Trust based in Flagstaff, Arizona, collecting field data for an unrelated study on native plants responding to climate change. For an extra-curricular adventure on that trip, we made stops at the Grand Canyon and other riparian zones to appreciate the local wildlife. It was amazing to see whole forests of tamarisk had browned or died completely—leaving in its place an opportunity for new life to emerge. The native willows and grasses were returning, and with them came a chance for native insects and birds to repopulate and enjoy a landscape that looks like it did centuries ago.All of that is thanks to a little beetle invading the landscape as an invasive species, brought in by scientists to keep another invasive species in check.

It’s a matter of priorities.If you deem your family and friends more important than other stuff, you’ll find time.It’s a constant struggle for me but in the last few years I’ve learned to allow my family to claim me occasionally and drag me away from work.Right now I’m in Flagstaff. It’s so gorgeous over here that I have to peel myself away from the monitor and spend time with my boys.We are staying in a tiny cabin that was featured in American Eagle Outfitters ads.My husband said that something looks like penis (I think a branch or something).I really don’t have time in the middle of launching MommyGO and renovating and furnishing my new building and possibly acquiring another company to get away for a week and frolick in the woods. But I allow it to happen because it makes me happy.Here we are tired from looking for bears in the woods.Dinner - phones at the table are frowned upon and I broke that rule a bit. Truthfully, I’ve been working for hours in the bookstore and whenever I had a chance. They allow it because they know that stuff is important too.Someone saw 4 deer on our first day here. It lasted for 5 minutes but he will probably remember it for the rest of his life. A good time investment, no?

Yes. You are in luck if you want to take classes in Navajo. There are many places that offer classes. I have taken some of themThe Navajo tribe has a number of colleges on the Navajo Nation and most teach Navajo language. Dine College was the first tribally run college in the country in 1968. It is in Tsaile and has five satellite branches. This is the library at the main campus in Tsaile near the Lukachukai mountains.There are also branches of local community colleges (such as Coconino Community College) on or near the Navajo Nation that offer classes. Many of the state universities in the SW also have Navajo language classes.Twice a year Salina Bookshelf, a publisher in Flagstaff, puts out a partial list of all the Navajo classes in the four state area. Here is last fall’s list. Navajo Language Courses Fall 2017Here is a list of all the colleges and universities that recently offered Navajo language classes, many have classes at several branches.Northern Arizona U.Arizona State,University of Arizona,Mesa College,Navajo Technical College,Dine CollegeU of New Mexico,San Juan College,University of Utah,Brigham Young,Northern Pioneer College,Fort Lewis CollegeChandler Gilbert Community College. Navajo | Chandler-Gilbert Community CollegeCoconino Community College. Coconino Community College - Navajo (NAV)Often there have also often been Navajo language classes at UCLA, University of Washington, Stanford Navajo Courses | Language Center and Swarthmore NLA as well. Sometimes other places like the Phoenix Indian Center also have Navajo classes.Phoenix Indian Center : Beginning Dine Language Rosetta Stone also has NavajoFrom the Endangered Language Program: Navajo Release