It looks like a tableau from Diego Rivera, the long-sleeved workers sweating and hunched beneath great swaths of reeds—only it’s not sugar cane but Arundo donax. Known variously as giant cane, elephant grass or Colorado River weed, the giant reed grows up to 30 feet in height and is widespread though much of the temperate world including the American Southwest. Considered invasive in the United States, local Rotarians are out to control it.
One can’t miss it on any visit to the Russian River around Memorial Beach. It may look like slender bamboo, but it’s fast-spreading and highly flammable. It’s also very thirsty, using “50% more water from the Russian River compared to the native riparian flora,” Norm Fujita told us.
He and his fellow club members from Rotary Noon started work on extirpating the invasive reed after Russian Riverkeeper received a grant from the Coastal Conservancy to remove it. The grant, which originated after the fires of 2017 and 2019, was encouraged by environmentalists and fire safety experts to target Arundo because it is very flammable when it becomes dry.
“Arundo consumes up to 7 million gallons per acre which we need to keep in our river,” said Russian Riverkeeper’s Don McEnhill. “Arundo also displaces critical native plants and trees along the Russian River. No trees means no birds and a significant loss of biodiversity.”…