tamarisk-"Salt Cedar" is indeed a cedar. The wood is relatively soft, light red grinning, is quite workable and available in trunk sizes up to 12-14 inches. It is native to the Nile region of Egypt and was imported to this country by ranchers and farmers to stabilize river and ditch banks. It has proliferated out of control, taken over entire drainage basins, eliminates the growth of all other species in its understudy by secreting a salty brine which contaminates soil and kills native species. Its water consumption is legendary and the assessment of how much water we are losing in the Colorado River Drainage Basin is staggering. So what does that have to do with the two guitar pickers in the picture? Well the bridge on the guitar being played (by Gary Duncan-Smart Shelter Director) is made of Tamarisk...by John (the other guy) of Commorant Guitars in Ridgway...one of Colorado's finest acoustic guitar makers now developing instrument uses for invasive species (tamarisk and Russian olive) wood stocks. Through small regional industry experiment and development we create a value for the invasive that will, in time, fuel economic development of it as a resource...which will lead, obviously to reasons to assist in its removal and give us viable alternatives to the damaging and long run disasters eminent and now evident with chemical irradiation efforts, now epidemic along with their immune system damages to wildlife and humans as well. Here are the other uses potential to tamarisk's qualities and the contact information and feedback from the people using it.

Firewood- salt cedar is a fairly light wood with little pitch content and easily harvested...smaller trees, especially in the dormant winter state, can be torn apart by hand. It cuts fairly easily. Several individuals with a variety of wood heating devices are being given samples for testing for firewood use. (Dr. Ruth Davis-professional photographer-Ouray, Chris Johnson-custom wood milling/firewood service-Paonia, Gaily Gobbo-Smart Shelter Residency Program student-Cedar edge) Preliminary feedback is that it burns hot and fastness Dr. Davis says..."it sizzles" if cut live and dormant in winter. The variety of dimensions (up to 12" in older trunks) puts it in sizes comparable to juniper and pinion or most aspen. On a rating range (shooting from the hip here until we have more user feed back), our regional firewood's range from dried aspen which burns relatively hot, but way too fast, resulting in minimal usable or sustainable heat content...through the pines and firs, which are the generally preferred wood stove and fireplace species balancing dried speed of burning to heat content (both found in the midrange)to juniper and pinion (pinion having the highest heat content and duration in burning, but problematical because of its explosive pitch pockets and the speed at which it sots up chimneys.). Tamarisk appears that it will compare favorably with pine, certainly superior to aspen and of a heat content possibly as high as juniper without the soothing problems of pinion...in short, a hot, clean burning fuel when dry.

The environmental and acquisition advantages of Tamarisk versus the native species are that we need the native pines, aspens and junipers standing's a counteractive to global warming and for bio-regional health. Harvesting of pinion given its current Ipsch beetle/ drought kill of 60-80% regionally is unthinkable in its live state, problematical in its killed state because of road and traffic damage to already stressed mid to higher elevation terrain and, of course, the explosive and soothing character of the wood, which Tamarisk seems to avoid. Tamarisk is most prevalent and certainly most needing irradiation in the very low elevation river corridors...the Uncompahgre, Gunnison and Colorado...which means that it is best harvested and most accessible mid winter with the sap down...which is exactly when the wood stock is needed most for heating. This also means that our wood cutting/ firewood services can remain viable mid winter instead of having to rush all summer and fall to maintain stock for the winter sales season. This is also the time when the noxious sound of chain saws is least impacting on the summer recreational crowd and parenting wildlife.

Smart Shelter is assembling a contact list of the most reputable and environmentally responsible fire wood suppliers regionally (one or two per community) who we can recommend to the public lands managers for supervised or permitted experimental extraction of tamarisk (and Russian olive). By limiting these permits to the best people, we increase viability with the public lands managers...some of whom (Colorado Division of Wildlife) have already expressed provisional support for opening limited and designated areas seasonally to permitted harvesters on a trial basis.

Smart Shelter will also work with community education and awareness to promote those suppliers by making the public aware of the advantages of burning nonnative versus native species...thereby creating a market conversion pressure to fuel this industry resource base change...which seems, at this point, to be a shoe in and a no brainer.

If you have a particular firewood supplier who meets our description, please let us know about them for provisional listing here (which is at no cost). Invasive species firewood suppliers listed by community will be found right here: click this link:

Regional Invasive Species Firewood Suppliers (by community)

The biggest single environmental advantage to converting your firewood resource to invasive species is that you're effectively cutting our air pollution from burning in half. Wood stoves are problematical to start with. 25 years ago, we saw the first studies rating our local pockets of wood stove air pollution at LA standards and above...that's right...pristine mountain settings where coughing LA and Denverites flee for a healthier life (and of course, bring with them the two most disastrous environmental nightmares: domestic dogs and cats and wood burning fireplaces and stoves). In that first EPA study (Telluride, 1970's) air quality monitors atop main street business buildings showed particulate pollution surpassing worst days in LA three times per winter. Particulates over 10 microns are straight-line related to bronchitis, asthma, lung cancer and emphysema. In the long run, converting from wood heat to renewable energy sources such as passive solar, geothermal, etc is our only hope. Banning fireplaces in Telluride and Mountain Village were steps in the right direction, albeit about as politically popular as a dose of the plague. In the mean time, smoke reduction is the key. (oh, incidentally, just to drive the blade deeper, any pulmonary cardiologist worth their salt in this region...and this comes from one of the best in Grand Junction...will tell you that the first people to contract respiratory diseases from living in houses or communities with wood burning stoves are the children)....anyway...together we can cut this puppy in half quickly and painlessly...and here's the simple how and why.

What does Division of Wildlife, the Nature Conservancy or the BLM do with the tamarisk they're whacking???? You got it...they burn it (and you breathe it)....if you're an ELI, you probably have to leave the region...and we're not kidding....many of us do annually during the spring and fall "burning" seasons. We can't breathe...and we know that you shouldn't. Then what happens? You go (or your firewood person goes)...up to the woods, whacks native species pine and juniper...and then you burn it too. No brainer, folks...let's just whack the invasive tamarisk and olive...leave the natives standing and burn what DOW would have burned in our stoves...yikes...a solution even a republican could get...let's do it. Half the air quality problem, zero chemicals injected into our river systems, a value-added industry created, winter access for the wood cutters and Smart Shelter gets more project funding because we were right (as of course, we nearly always are...even when we're wrong, right? We thought so.) Just click the list above, find the guy in your town, order your next chord of tamarisk...just do it. If there's no one on your list, ask around for the best firewood supplier in your berg, bug them, send them to BLM and Dow to bug them and keep doing it until they're doing it...then contact us and tell us who they are so we can post it here and you will be anointed with invasive species irradiation junior sainthood and live happily ever after in the squeeky-voiced, neurotic, wire-rimmed glasses tree-hugger hall of fame....or not. If your firewood supplier knows not about that which you speak, cop a snotty, superior, condescending attitude and insist that they contact Smart Shelter.

Note: (5mar04) Preliminary user feedback indicates that a 50/50 mix of Russian olive (in larger dimensions) and tamarisk (in all dimensions) may be the best "Premium" or "Prefered" firewood source available, combining the easy start and hot flame produced from tamaisk with the harder, longer duration, fire-sustaining qualities of Russian olive. Kindling and starter with tamarisk, bank it down with olive.

Wood stove Pellets- same rap as above. Current experiments are being done with individual home owners to test...first...whether tamarisk (especially the smaller dimensioned slash)...run through a chipper-shredder ... will substitute as pellet feed stock in the higher-efficiency units now on the market. No conclusions yet. If you want to try, either chip some up, run it and email your conclusions to Smart Shelter...or if its a disaster...hide it. No not really, we post disasters along with successes. We need to warn people of problems...we have enough reinvented wheels already. If you don't have a chipper shredder, contact Smart Shelter or find one...you should be chipper shredding all your bio-degradables, paper, cardboard, limb cuttings, lawn clippings, neighbor's chihuahua, and dried table scraps for compost and moisture retarding ground cover anyway....we're in a drought, don't forget.

Gun Stocks/ Pistol Grips-The quest for attractive and productive uses of the reddish cedar grain of tamarisk and the gorgeous chocolate heartwood of olive lead us to the decorative and sports minded applications. Rootball irradiation is deemed absolutely necessary in both species for effectiveness. Both root balls produce very light colored burl grained woods extremely carvable when green and drying to very hard consistency on aging. Myriad grained pistol grip burl stock trials are underway.

Other reason is, we need to get the redneck, gun toting, hunter crowd on our side. The current writer happens to be one of those types...raised with an arsenal of guns at side...as well as a shrieking environmentalist....and currently carving a tamarisk pistol grip for his new pump pistol air gun...no noise armaments...technology for the future...now a little green band aid at the pistol grips for show....we'll teach those gauddam tree huggers what hearts are for.

Wood Carving-Same characteristics as described above. Worked green, the bark of root ball burls carves like butter. Dried tamarisk small dimension limb stock is being used by:

Elmer Alvarez-(Alvarez Family Mexican Restaurant-Delta) who is a Santa Fe Mexican Folk Art Carver...he makes angels out of them. Elmer apprenticed under the most famous folk art carver in New Mexico and is now supplying not only 5 Santa Fe galleries (with tamarisk angels) but is exporting his carved coyotes to Japan..see how far a good ripple travels?) Incidentally, Alvarez is the best Mexican food in Delta and the only one open Sundays. Half block off Main (west), two blocks shy of the railroad tracks toward down town. Tell them to get rid of the television sets...who wants to eat state of the art huevos rancheros listening to the mindless ranting of hysterical failed hollywood actor wannabes and herbicide commercials...yuk.

Burgess-(Paradox) (520-907-9471) reported chainsaw carving of a medium sized Russian olive bowl, quite attractive...contact is unconfirmed, apparently on the Dolores River in Paradox Valley, a truck farmer frequenting the Ridgway Farmer's Market. Source: Bob Sturgeon, wood turner, Olathe.

Earth Gems-(cottopaxi...near Salida) (719-942-4468) Karina and Tom Lantzy...do beautiful burl and heartwood carvings from standing dead native species and also Russian Olive and Tamarisk. Find their work at regional fairs and on theie website at: www.earth-gems.com

Custom Wood Turning -Feedback to date from wood turners is that it is difficult to obtain solid invasive stock that isn't cracked. Different drying techniques (including wax coating fresh cut ends) still haven't produced a solution. Current research focuses on harvesting standing live tamarisk (and olive) in dead winter with the sap down...we'll see. The woods are beautiful. Tamarisk is soft enough to turn well...but more experiment is needed. The future may lie in developing turning uses and designs capitalizing on the cracks...as in a lot of the native burl exotic turnings currently on display in Ouray galleries. There is no reason that the beauty and character of tamarisk and olive can't offset the cracking, incorporating both in the creation of a newer form of the art.

Bob Sturgeon (Olathe) (323-6683)is a seasoned, long term wood turner making bowls, plates and decorative objects out of any wood that will stand still long enough to turn. His pilot work with elm, tamarisk and olive is relatively extensive. Smart Shelter is feeding him test stocks, gaining his experiences with them and trying new sources and harvesting/drying techniques. This process typically takes 3-4 years to hit paydirt...we're starting (march 04) into year two. Note:(5mar04) Bob indicates maximum freedom from checking with Russian olive making it viable for turning is to kill the tree and let it stand for two years before harvest and use. Unfortunately, it would appear that what he means is using an herbacide, which he is using other places on his site. Besides being contradictory to Smart Shelter's Chemical-Free programs, the chances the herbacides remain residual in the wood, often turned into bowls used for fruit and other food storage is indeed risky and problematical, not to mention what it is doing to the immune system of the applicator themselves. Paring back the tree tenaciously produced effective kill in a number of olives at the Nick Gray site (2000-2004).

Art Production-the sculptural and artistic or decorative values of these woods provide infinite possibilities. Olive rootballs are graphically sculptural with dynamic curvatures providing an inherent lining for art. The tamarisk balls are lumpy with successive nodes and exotic white burl interior woods. Bark from the olive is easily peeled green (not to be peeled at all aged). There is no bark on tamarisk burls, but a reddish coating which seems to have deep crimson dye characteristics...more experiment needed there. Inclusion of both species is underway in three dimensional art projects including a movement sculpture, a micro-sized table conversation piece, etc.

Bob Willis (Willis Woodworks and Gallery) 306 6th ave, Ouray, Colo 81427...325-0390/ 325-0426...easily one of Western Colorado's true master sculptor/woodworkers. His exotic carvings of burl woods, decorations and capacity to produce spherical and cubical renditions from weathered burls is unprescedented...a must see. He has worked with Russian Olive and is presently (june, 04) being supplied with sample tamarisk and olive root balls for trial and development. If you're considering a major art purchase, consider commissioning an invasives wood stock scupture from this artist.

Landscape Chip/ Weed Barrier-California (especially the more progressive, non-chemical areas such as Santa Barbara) have seen the use of chipped tree trimmings become the staple for weed and mud control. All tree services are required (by land fill regulation) to chip and reuse extracted trees and trimmings (a program called Urban Forestry). What has been found is that a 2 to 3 inch chip layer serves as a very effective weed barrier, preventing the use of chemicals or hand irradiation. The key is to get it deep enough. Over time, the chip will biodegrade and enrich the soil, so that when regrowth does happen it will bias the natives through soil enhancement. In the specific instance of tamarisk, a potential gold mine might be at hand. Tamarisk produces a sap, which drips to the shaded area under the tree and effectively kills all competition in that zone...it is a natural herbicide and as anyone who has crawled through a tamarisk infestation will tell you...a very effective one....nothing at all grows there....except smashed budweiser cans and suspicious looking pieces of limp tubular plastic. What is needed now is chipping of large volumes of tamarisk, especially the whips and sprouts and over layering of drive and walkway areas or lawn boundaries...or even weed infested soils to begin testing whether it may not represent the ideal ground cover...a moisture and weed preventative as well as a natural herbicide...and pleasant to bare feet and aesthetically amber red color to boot.

Wood chip Gravel-the largest single most destructive extractive industry in Western Colorado (after recreational down hill ski tourism) is gravel extraction. Hundreds of pits line the rivers of this region, ripping up cottonwoods, willows, native grasslands in that watered fragile zone containing less than 5% of our land area and harboring 80% of our wildlife species, including experiment-minded newly pubescent teenagers.

This text is being written in a gorgeous RV park on the banks of the flowing Gunnison River in Delta to the sound (which starts at 7am daily) to belly dumps and front end loaders from the gravel pit across the way...inside the Delta City Limits. I have a belly dump loader for a parked next door neighbor and its tracks from across the river, ripping through a wetlands habitat and gouging its path into fragile sandy river soil tell all the story that needs telling in this state where extractive mining industry interests can acquire, buy, sell or develop the ground under any individual property owner without their knowledge, permission, or even with any responsibility to repair.

The unconstitutionality of the breach of our constitutional rights to "Life, Liberty and the Perfute of Happiness" are obvious...but like so many other things...must await Supreme Court dismantling to give us back the serenity mining interests often consider "chump change".

Cut to the solution...remove the checks the gravel industry gets for mining gravel and guess what they'll do...(probably get into the ski industry, right?). Well, we don't know, but they will stop mining gravel when we quit paying them to do it. We, the consumer, are the root of all environmental evils. Hard pill for most to swallow, but if you do, you get the bennies of empowerment. Find a substitute for gravel and you've launched a new way of doing business in Western Colorado.

Chip up your tamarisk and put it on your driveway and walkway. It absorbs moisture (gravel just diverts it), provides a bed base, especially for adobe "muck", renutrients soil, probably prevents weeds, is red instead of "dead" gray and doesn't build up and reflect glaring summer heat the way gravel does. It is disastrously counterproductive to gravel a yard or driveway and them pay for air conditioning because the reflection and heat gain doubled the temperature in your house. Wood chip absorbs heat...a key ingredient in passive cooling design.

The clincher is to take a Glidden paint chip sampler to the morgue and match the complexion color of a couple of corpses...you'll find they are consistently sullen gray. Now match that chip to the color of the gravel in your driveway. 100% the same isn't it. Dead pallor, dead riparian zone, dead wildlife, dead fish...do you like the picture? Is that what you want greeting you and your guests on every arrival home? How about a nice pastel amber-beige from an actual living substance like tamarisk (not to even get into the Chi energy considerations). Beats the hell out of driving home over the extracted internal organs of another pristine riparian corridor...which, incidentally, you also can't walk on with bare feet and certainly not in the blazing sun of summer like you can a nice, soft, comfortable, environmentally responsible driveway and path made out of tamarisk chip.

Let's see, how many more iconoclastic parallels can we hang on gravel? When I checked in here they warned me that the belly dump might start any day at 7 am and is empowered by state law to haul gravel up through the middle of the RV park without permits, even though they do not own the property...and in apparent impunity from regard for 3 year old children of campers or sleeping environmentalists (this is not a wise choice...mind you...snarly, wicked, whinny bunch that stays up late with consistency).

Wood chip gravel from invasive species...we know this works...have used it for years...now its your turn. This is a no brainer you can start today. If you don't own a chipper shredder, they are rentable, hirable, borrowable, buyable...watch your fingers and your ears. Keep a couple of barrels (plastic covered trash cans from Walmart work great) of chip around...you'll be amazed the uses it will sprout. Be sure it comes from invasive species you yourself extracted. Small rabbits will love you. Belly dumps will leave you alone.

Compost-the chipper shredder is key here. With adjustable screens, compost can be made down to quarter inch size. Warning, experiment is needed here concerning the natural herbicidal nature of tamarisk before use of compost in areas intended to regrow. Compost from all other sources is used, tested and recommended.

Pole Structures, Structural Building Components-so much of our building industry, home improvements, lawn structure construction, etc is based in habit. Want a bench...buy dimensional redwood. None of us are immune. Its taken years and the intentional drive of developing alternative end uses for slashed invasive (elm, olive, tamarisk) to finally gain the discipline of using tamarisk poles for new library shelf supports, dimensional invasive for finished wood cabinets and drawer fronts, quartered invasive limbs for picture frames, stripped 10 foot olive poles for "cooliups" (tented, moistened lawn teepees for kid...and adult...summer shade and play structures). You will find, as you whack tamarisk, machete off the "whips" for compost or bent wood furniture, what's left are straight usable trunks or long, arching limbs. If you simply stack those up (we call them "Navajo wood piles") in accumulating conical structures, where they greet your eyes in times of structural lumber needs...they will find a use. It's been seven years since I set foot in a lumber yard...and I build constantly...but insist on reprograming my resources to utilize the obvious needs...invasives species slash put to beneficial use...and not burned as another source of air pollution. There is never a reason to burn a stack of anything...ever...not even once...don't do it.

Wood Pallets-rough sawn, even cracked or warped, random width invasive dimensional lumber is ideal, especially when green, for making shipping pallets...especially in consideration of the native old growth Missouri oak which many of them are made of today. An invasive species regionally sourced pallet industry....why not?

Door Knobs, Car Door Window Crank Handles - my 1980 VW Vanagon has them on every window handle...simply tamarisk limbs sliced into 3/4" knobs and oiled. Once you get your hands on a natural knob of grippable size you will never go back to the pathetically undersized plastic stock models. Why can't Ford be using these as a $25 or $50 add-on option for their Explorers, especially in the Eddie Bauer line (he would have loved it) and include a blurb sheet in the glove box about what tamarisk looks like, why it's a problem and where the money you spent went to help fix it...then give that money to tamarisk irradiation funds and projects....even like this one, maybe. Just needs a whiz bang sales damsel to talk Ford into it...or better yet...the Japanese manufacturers...then we'll use the funds to get rid of the atvs, dirt bikes, jet skis, snow mobiles and motorized hang gliders their industries have inflicted on our lands and ears.

Pencils- "you're kidding" you say. "Already being done" I say. The big island of Hawaii has worse tamarisk than here...and that's a big problem. The Hawaiian tamarisk pencils are already on sale, factory already in production...why not bring a branch here...this seems really low risk in terms of economic development...something slow enough even Bill Owens might be able to catch up to. Well, on second thought.....

Matchsticks-Diamond Match Factory already exists...based in Mancos...guess what lies by the hundreds of thousands of trunks as our most disastrous testimonial to failed american ingenuity and integrity in their front lot...native aspen and pine logs...ripped out of our forest, hauled across rutting and stream clogging roads at huge embodied energy costs and whittled up into diameters of minuscule dimension to be crowned with a sulfur cap and given to pyromaniacs to start forest fires to keep their forest service flame jumper overtime pay flowing. Solution: deliver a load of tamarisk and insist they try it...plead, beg, threaten, bribe, insist...send gorgeous blonds...whatever it takes. "Why doesn't someone do it, you wonder...what a great idea." What about you doing it? Why not today? Another no-brainer.

Toothpicks-same schticik

Furniture- The elaborate and colorful heartwood of tamarisk and the other invasive (elm and olive) are more than adequate for exposed-wood furniture production. Limited experience is known from furniture makers using this resource. Smart Shelter is feeding sample stock to makers as they are identified and willing to experiment.

Rooster Barnhart (Austin, and not Texas) long term cabinet and art furniture maker, previously of Montrose and connected with the Montrose Visual Arts Guild has done work with several invasive and native species stocks. He coached a Montrose Memorial Hospital Surgeon through construction of an apparently successful Russian olive coffee table....gorgeous Direct tamarisk research is unknown....ripe for exploration. From a prior woodworker's view, it seems quite feasible.

Location of an invasive resource based commercial or industrial furniture industry here is quite within the realm of feasibility. Smart Shelter's approach is to farm wood samples out in small quantity to a diverse number of builders to gain a broad based and dependable knowledge of characteristics, source development, harvesting and processing timing and care. This will provide informed and convincing basis for courting larger scale industry, though intentionally to be kept regionally profit-retentive and labor market based when that stage of development is reached...we have all the brain-numb, profit exporting, minimum wage, zero benefit, low service, toxic product, community destructive big box corporate terrorists in the region we need...back to mom and pop business with heart and ease of control because they look at their customers over the vegetable bins daily. This avenue certainly warrants funding for research continuation from entities like the Montrose Economic Development Council and the State of Colorado Department of Local Affairs. Anyone out there that wants to do some funding legwork for a good cause?

In the specific instance of elm, which resembles and handles much like gum species of hardwoods, the prolific availability of the species...especially in its harvest with Urban Forestry and regional residential tree removal, we have here a potential gold mine in furniture frame wood stock. The gums are not spectacular display hardwoods. They, like elm have a tamer, or even dull appearance. But as the resilient hardwood stock for the frames of upholstered rockers, loungers and sofas, its dynamite...hard, tough, abundant and hidden. To base an extractive small regional industry on elm removal and milling for furniture uses alone stands a very high degree of economic viaility...probably, at this stage of development and test research into handling characteristics already conducted by Smart Shelter...ready for speculative investment and marketing to implement. This could be a viable regional industry tomorrow without much risk or research.

Pole Furniture-the exact example of the habit type of thinking leading to dimensional lumber purchases instead of raw invasive stock utilization discussed above is evidenced here. The pole furniture industry has blossomed into the decorators design of choice in provisioning interiors (residential and business) seeking rustic, pioneer or historic charm motifs. Many regional small businesses combine into a significant economic wallop industry based on the harvest, design and manufacture of furniture utilizing smaller dimension poles of pine and aspen primarily in sizes from 6" down...exactly the prolific size availability of invasive. To convert or develop a similar tamarisk motif, or to begin including the "gnarly" and sculptural aspects of unskinned tamarisk stocks into existing pine and aspen furniture as accent and line seems simple enough...give them the stock and encourage them to experiment.

Bent wood/"whip" structures- tamarisk is a strange tree...it anchors itself with a tuberous, lumpy root, grows a dark, thin-barked strong trunk (fairly straight) , branches out into long, graceful arching boughs and then sprouts thin, willowy "whips" which launch straight up like the bristles on a curved hair brush to explode into tiny purple blossoms with the reproductive power of myriad minotaurs annually.

The "bent wood" boughs come pre-bent. The curving structures of many smaller natural building components or curvilinear structural components of larger houses are easily facilitated by the use of these branches. Again, harvest, sort and stack them...they will find their use. The Smart Shelter "Cooliups" are built with arching roofs from curved boughs. You just need a stock pile large enough to do effective matching. Wattle and daub (the architecture of pre-stone dwelling Anasazi builders) is particularly amenable to curved tamarisk stock for the structural core. Kids love to play with these. Adults could learn a lot from more play with their kids.

"Whip" construction holds a lot of hope in its development as as a weaving and matrix natural building medium.

Marc and Diane Schevene (Paonia) two years ago received Natural Homes Magazine annual award for natural homes design for their work on the Bob and Connie Willet home (near Crawford)(Bob is one of four regional emergency room physicians living in state of the art natural homes in the Smart Shelter Service area of Western Colorado). In that award publication you will find a picture of Diane's approach to cabinet and room doors...frames enclosing a woven matrix of willow branches to replace the raised panel of conventional architecture...a startling and very successful innovation...and obviously deserving of national recognition. We would substitute tamarisk whips for the willow. Tamarisk we need to get rid of, willow needs to stay in our native wetlands.

Ray Taylor (Paonia/Minnesota Creek) reportedly built tamarisk architectural archway and is a wood worker with other tamarisk uses.

Anything that can be woven can be made with the three foot long tamarisk whips...pliable when green...hard as nails after woven and dried. A national cabinet supply house offering tamarisk whip door panels as a selection option? along with a blurb on the species and why? Why not?

Cabinetry/ Premium Dimensional Hardwood Lumber -All of the possibilities discussed above are relevant to the use of tamarisk (and olive and elm) as cabinetry wood resources....especially in light of the old-growth oak, ash, birch and mahogany conventionally destroyed in their production at monumental environmental costs...and, we think, for no reason. A small test sample stock of dimensional tamarisk is in development (elm and olive are already available and in distribution). The smaller dimensions necessitated by most cabinet designs necessitating inch and a half to 6 inch widths seems feasible to harvest from the invasive. Appearances match or exceed mahogany and cedar (for tamarisk) and oak and ash (for olive). The "gum-like" characteristics of elm are discussed under "furniture" above. Smart Shelter is continuing its preliminary research already done on a sampling basis into limited test production.

Danny Lane- (Montrose)Used by several Montrose area custom furniture and cabinet makers as a milling/ sawyer service for custom dimensional production from sources brought to him...cottonwood, pine, etc...indicated to be either interested in or experienced in production with invasive.

(Name Unknown) (Contact Rooster Barnhart-Austin)- Rooster, a long term Montrose area cabinet and furniture artisan indicated use of a local miller for custom native and invasive species milling...little legwork here.

Ray Lumber (Montrose)(249-7839) source for rough sawn custom lumber- (13759 6900 Rd, Montrose, 81401)...from Smart Shelter Resource Files

Annie (last name unknown)(Hastings Mesa/Ridgway) has small mill, interested in custom milling...a way to get contact info for her would be to call Kris Holstrom/ Tomten Farms...one of our premier hybrid high altitude greenhouse permaculturists living on Hastings Mesa ...she'll know Annie...who is sometimes in Greenland or Antarctica fueling aircraft.

Gary Justman (?Justin)- (Colona/Montrose) cited in Smart Shelter Resource Files as a small scale, lumber milling operation, possibly ammenable to custom milling of invasive.

F M Seaman- (Missouri Hardwoods) 704 6530 Rd, Montrose, 81401) (249-0308) ...an unconfirmed hardwoods source, mainly imported, reported by Bob Sturgeon (wood turning). May be capable of small scale milling of local invasive, might be encouraged to do that.

Chris Johnson (Paonia)-sawyer gearing up for air-dried stocking of tamarisk, olive, elm and cottonwood as a beginning source for invasive resource stock. Band saw produced, custom orders acceptable ($500 minimum) prefers buyer providing feed stock. Custom milling.

The high dollar per board foot prices for retail hardwoods lumber, especially in the dizzying market spiral of the past 15 years, makes the regional production of competitive invasive resources coupled with public education turning the tamarisk and olive into consumer-prefered commodities and "showoff" high end products homeowners (now of increasingly high visibility and purchasing wallop here) will afford for several reasons. This value...often $3 to $12 per board foot (that's a one inch thick board one foot square) proffer this end use as an attention getter candidate for economic development. We need several custom millers regionally who will stick their necks out to mill and stock pile these woods for aging (one year in open air here) and availability for sale. Smart Shelter will list and resource them at this and other locations on this web site and is already working on public education to bolster that market.

Music Instruments-the picture at the top of this page, pretty much says it all...the test samples of tamarisk and olive and elm are already being distributed and used by regional instrument makers. This promises to be one of most fun and also one of the most challenging of our research and development endeavors. Music instruments....definatly surpassing sculpture...constitute the most demanding and consequently the most rewarding of all possible end uses and small scale industries for use of invasive species wood stock. For a natural product to produce music is a very complex and intricate process. The rosewoods, pines, spruces, mahoganies and maples used in guitar, mandolin, fiddle, harp and banjo building are very expensive, selectively harvested, custom aged and fastidiously criterioned woods. For tamarisk, olive and elm to compete as ingredients in guitars which sell for several thousand dollars, there is significant homework to be done...and we're doing it. There are several reasons for "piddling" with such a seemingly minuscule market dealing in wood pieces seldom larger than you could carry under one arm. First of all...if you can get a wood past a guitar builder of the experience and reputation of John at Commorant Guitars...you will not only learn everything there is to know about the character of that wood, but you also have the highest certifiability of its market that can be attained. The other reason is that people reference a wood used in musical instruments as a value-guaging piece of authority...hence the exorbitant prices (and now complete non-availability) of ancient-growth Chines spruce and Brazilian rosewood...all produced either out of resource availability or purchased and hoarded by wise investors. Win this battle with tamarisk and olive in top line guitars and the rest of the value-added industry for the parallel sales of furniture, cabinet and sculptural stock (and its profits) becomes simply a matter of how many rocks you want to roll down a pretty steep hill.

John (Commorant Guitars)- on the mezzanine smack in the center of the steaming urban core of metropolitan down town Ridgway.

Don Paine (Pomeroy Instruments) Glenwood Springs (970-945-0350) web site: www.pomeroyinstruments.com...a very successful high end custom order mandolin maker now willing to experiment with tamarisk, elm, cottonwood and Russian olive stock in mandolin manufacture...the bookmatched pieces are 6 inches wide, 1 3/8 in thick and 16 inches long...single piece units are 12 inches wide. Stability of the tops and backs are increased with varigrained wood structure, which is found in the rootballs/burls...we'll see if this harvesting and use are possible. Air drying of samples currently being milled (april 04) will take 6 months to a year...we're a ways out from production samples, which is a risky business given the labor intensity of these instruments...someone willing to finance prototypes would be a help here.

Picture Frames-I'm out of poop, you figure out this one.

Sources for Tamarisk

Mike Zeman, Technician (Colorado Division of Wildlife-Escalante Unit-Delta)- Mike has indicated preliminary interest and willingness to opening selected and restricted areas of river corridor infested with tamarisk to supervised extraction...contact him for procedures and permits.

BLM and others....hang on, these are in development. Go talk to them yourself and help speed things along...learn to identify these species...you'll find that sources are not the problem.

Russian olive

Some invasive are difficult...this one is lethal...as anyone who has been attacked with olive thorns will attest. Ironically, its heartwood is some of the most elegant decorative hardwood for cabinetry and furniture you will find. It's a gorgeous chocolate brown rivaling walnut and ash. Sample milling has been done by Smart Shelter and limited distribution of pieces to primarily instrument makers continues, soliciting working experience from a cross section of discriminating professional woodworkers regarding stability, dimensions, uses and durability. It is an excellent firewood, longer burning than tamarisk. The combination of the two...tamarisk to start the fire and heat the flue, Russian olive to bank and sustain the heat.

elm

The Siberian or Chinese elm which was the mainstay of residential landscaping for the twentieth century is now the secondary nightmare of the twenty-first (after olive and tamarisk) with its escape from communities and into the wild, where it inundates everything. It's fast growing and problematical in its removal because, once established, it does produce excellent shading allowing riparian understudy species to thrive and reduces water demands. Wherever your verdict falls, it turns out that the elm is an excellent "gum type" hardwood...not particularly attractive (certainly not as flambouyantly grained as the tamarisk or olive) but stable and hard when cured. Other gums are widely used where hardwood stability is needed without show...such as in the interior frames of upholstered furniture. Furniture or cabinet industry resourced from regional "Urban Forestry" sources of elm, olive, tamarisk and cottonwood is a bet we're missing. Why import maple from New England, oak from Missouri, pine from the old growth forests of the northwest...and then have our invasive species extractors and tree service specialists haul all our tamarisk, olive and oak to the landfill...or worse, yet, dump it illegally on public lands?

The early spring elm seedlings, which are prolific, are great to eat...try them like cereal...light and tasty. So are the leaves, especially when young.

The chipper/shredder pulverized bark of elm...soaked in water...produces what this researcher has come to refer to as "elm snot"...a gooey, gelatinous residue which has given herbalists using the resins the term "slippery elm". It has a variety of potential uses currently under investigation...primarily as a reinforcing additive to cob and adobe block. More on this later as time provides.

(Note: in general, not only are the irradiation of the leafy, plant species of invasive and the changes in their values providing a motivator for their extraction and use...but also their disposal (true of the tree species obviously as well). Combining the upcoming increase in unsustainable fuel supplies, directing the research into uses for these bio-products toward fuel generation may be wise. The first, most obvious method of fuel generating disposal is to use them as combustible material for energy generation...the problem there is the air pollution, which is not something we need more of. The most interesting and potentially the most productive fuel utilization could be in the generation of alcohol for heating, solvents, transportation fuel and cooking. Fermentation of these species is rapid and simple...large barrels, vats. Distillation technology would be simple to develop on small scales (say for instance, single family residential scale) with solar condensers...allowing a renewable energy resource and time to fit into extended time irradiation. A system in operation might consist of a pair of vats. Into the first are thrown the pulled weeds as they are harvested. It will begin fermenting almost immediately. Once it is at capacity, the second is filled, allowing the first to complete digestion. The liquid is extracted into a solar distiller and the residues dried for composting and returning to the soil as nutrient. (Care is needed at this stage to assure that the digestion has killed all seeds so that regeneration from residue is not a problem.) The solar distiller operates until the alcohol is extracted. The remaining liquid is returned to the soil as an enriching "tea". By that time the second vat should be ready for extraction.

The elements of this process all exist elsewhere in sustainable technology and are viable. Experimentation would be necessary to refine application to invasive specifically. However, the viability of the potential outcome, the low cost of the components and the feasibility of a system becoming a simple extension of the home composting or vermiculture bin (similar to the residential methane generation technologies in widespread use in China) seem very attractive.

If you have information about this already being done, please contact Smart Shelter. We are beginning preliminary distillation experiments (summer 2004). "My car runs on weeds"...bumper sticker for the year 2010.

white top

This prolific early spring invasive is a member of the mustard family, and in its younger phases certainly tastes like it. Potential culinary and recipe experiments are underway. At the DOM 21 site, the young plants have a fiery taste reminiscent of good posole.

Canadian Thistle

The Canadians have given us more than many of us know. The Canadian Thistle (brought to us by who else...Colorado State University Extension Service...1920's...they thought it would make a good cattle feed and planted it with religion)...at first glance a dangerous invasive, tenacious to bare-handed touch...may be a godsend to many in disguise...originating, ironically, from another Canadian legacy...the Canadian Mountie. The word "Mountie" is in question regarding its origin. Many believe that it is typically British rendition of a "mounted police man"...which, indeed, "Mounties" are. However, in a recently discovered diary of the paramour of a turn of the century Canadian mounted policeman and definite originator of the term...whe may have actually been referring to a different kind of "mounting" altogether.

Clarise, a native of Saskatchewan, and confinee to a remote cabin in the Canadian Rockies which her amorous partner Clyde used as his base of operations as a Mountie seems (through the documents of her own memoirs and hand) to have taken an exasperating situation regarding her mate's level of "endowment" in hand and delivered to us a legacy no email/internet "enhancement" advertisement will ever be able to touch.

The Canadian Thistle begins its growth in a tufted, almost furry florate rosette base, from which springs a sturdy and arching shaft of unusual strength and stature, sporting at its apex a gorgeous rounded and spectacular head from which issues in profusity the seed of its germinal spray seemingly boasting itself out into the waiting world beyond at climax blossom.

Clarise, noting this robust eruption of nature and comparing it to the sagging disappointment she found herself constrained to due to location and circumstance with Clyde, took imagination to heart and determination in hand to deliver to us, which remains even today, a most remarkable solution...a veritable "miracle concoction".

She had on hand an excess of organic coconut oil....which, as we already know...is an exceptional sensual lubricant....although not, in and of itself, capable of achieving the miraculous or the wished for enhancements.

Clarise, her imagination irrevocably transfixed with the desired aspects of the thistle surrounding her cabin in profuse, flowing abundance, harvested 30 pounds of the young, fluffy rosettes, boiled them down into a slurry, which she sun baked and added as a dried, fine powder to the coconut oil.

Her hand application of this first "Thistle Pistol" as she named it, produced astonishing results in the growing stature of her paramour and his re-arrival home from patrol started to become a high point in her day. So consistent and cumulative became the effects on Clyde that Clarise's curiosity (and a bit of her tomboy tomfoolery left as yet unrequited from childhood) spurred her into rising early, before Clyde was aroused, sneaking into his gallant (though also not impressively endowed) stallion's stall to conduct a bit of hand application testing on other species...again, to startling, immediate and undeniable result.

Now, we know from extensive anthropological species research, frozen tundra remains and the fossil record, that horses on the north American Continent existed from the early eons..eohippus...barely four feet tall...other larger species coincident with the mega-fauna extincted at the ice age such as the woolly mammoth, saber-toothed tiger, etc. Every single one of these samples displayed in their male components quite minuscule and disappointing members in terms of stature comparison to body weight...at least until the turn of the nineteenth century into the twentieth...where suddenly the size of endowment in modern horses became so remarkable that none passing a male in pensive anticipation can help but remark and notice...even, perhaps entice.

Well, the reason is simple...it was the introduction into widespread Canadian use of Clarise's "Thistle Pistol Penis Balm". The boredom of life in the Canadian Rockies, the proximity of large stallions left unattended and the excitement in the womenfolk there with the effects of Clarise's discovery rapidly produced a genetic restructuring of the Canadian equestrian strain which spread like wildfire into the American West and eventually into the world at large...producing eventually a genetic modification making enormous members the prominent trademark of horse's domain.

All this flamboyant legacy was lost to American heritage in the sterile, "leave it to Beaver", Debby Reynolds, frigid monotony of the 1950's.

But you can resurrect Clarise's "Canadian Thistle Pistol Penis Balm" for yourself today. It's as simple as locating an infestation of Canadian Thistle (no problem there) picking about 30 pounds (careful, if it has been herbacide killed, it may cause the appendage targeted for application to drop off), boiling it down to dry powder, mixing it with melted organic coconut oil and just telling your honey it's a new, better sex salve...which indeedy-do, honey, it certainly is.

The commercial value of properly prepared, Smart Shelter Certified "Canadian Thistle Pistol Penis Balm" is inestimable. Some stores offer it over the shelf at prices in excess of $100 per ounce. Probably you could charge whatever you want.

Be careful not to share this secret and its history with too many...or you'll erode the market value with volume. Meantime...enjoy...you ornery, secretive little thing, you.

(another companion product...similair to the Belorussian Knapweed Breast Salve below...from Snake Oil Enterprises....the glaringly disreputable subsidiary of Smart Shelter...which assumes absolutely no responsibility for effect or origins, even if you think it should)

dandelion

Carbondale has made a project of the dandelion. The Village Smithy restaurant offers dandelion root tea. In May of each year the town holds a Dandelion Festival. The leaves, stems and flowers are good salad ingredients. The single, most viable element of dandelion uses to date in Smart Shelter's research is the discovery that it is a decent underarm deodorant...of medium duration...2-4 hours...and presents itself exactly in sync with the "sweat season". Application is simple...crumple leaves, stems or flowers and rub them on your pits...stops odor instantly. They're universally available. Make sure your source hasn't been sprayed with toxic chemicals.

Russian Knapweed

"The Russians are coming...the Russians are coming...they're here". This prolific invasive is especially tenacious in the lower elevation canyon systems regionally...as well as on ag land...anywhere disturbance gives it a foothold. Pretty easy to identify...look for the dead (last years) bushes loaded with teardrop shaped beige seed pods. Fortunately, as value added product challenges for invasive goes...this one is a cincher. Anyone who has ever been to the Ukrainian region of Russia (Belorussia) will have remarked at the consistent and exceptional level of "endowment" of the Russian women there. The name "Knapweed" is a contamination of a Russian phrase identifying this very valuable crop which refers to chest size with adjectives concerning "ripeness"...or, freely translated..."Ripe Chest Weed".

Given the current national annual expenditure on breast augmentation surgery in the U.S. the average American woman is missing the boat here big time. Already we have seen the backlash of male opinion and distrust resultant from the "silicone epidemic" of the 80's and 90's in which questions regarding veracity and trustworthiness were seen to arise following the lure of luxury bosoms and the later discovery of synthetic prosthesis...certainly a justified result in questioning,honesty and trust....and so unnecessary.

The Knapweed seed is tiny and tough, buried deep inside the furry kernel of the teardrop shaped external seed case...which can easily be stripped off the dried weeds by the handfull...becareful not to leave even one. Russian women spend significant and painstaking time stripping the dried plants of the seed pods, breaking them open, sorting the fluff out and retrieving the tiny germinal seeds...which are, quite literally, worth their weight in gold. The reason is that those tiny kernels, ground into powdered meal, soaked in natural oils such as olive, sesame, coconut and rubbed diligently on any sized breast will cause them to blossom into the stature so common with the voluptuous Ukrainian peasants.

Instead of spraying Russian Knapweed with toxic herbicidal chemicals (which only cause lymphatic inflammation and breast cancer anyway) enterprising regionals could be cleaning up big time gathering these prolific seeds, processing them simply and grinding them into over the counter salves to produce what we are already paying bundles for naturally...besi