Tamarisk jelly?
Seriously, tamarisks are a problem in many places, such as the lower Gila River Valley (Mohawk, Tacna, area) since they suck up a lot of water, but in Grand Canyon they have become a part of the ecosystem, and endangered birds nest in them. River runners use them to tie off boats and especially for shade. But they are dying off all along the river. There is a beetle that was experimentally released that eats tammies and kills them, and it is working so well that the Park Service is concerned, because all the tammies in Glen Canyon and also a lot in Marble Canyon have started to die off. The beetle infestation is slowly making its way downstream. The experiment started upstream, somewhere in Utah.
Some biologists have said there are more birds now in Grand Canyon than there used to be, because there are now trees (tamarisk) where there didn't used to be trees. Part of that also has to do with the dam, of course. Even with the experimental "floods" the river never runs 100,000 any more like it used to. If you look at very old photos you'll see there were very few trees, because they were washed away in the big pre-dam floods.
At the Ferry, they have experimented with removing tammies and planting native willows and cottonwoods. The cottonwoods at the private boaters' beach are very nice and shady. But I don't see how they can do that for 281 miles of river. It would be cost-prohibitive. I say, long live tammies!
Forest in the Desert
Speaking of trees growing in the desert, if you have never run the Diamond Down section of Grand Canyon, you wouldn't believe it until you see it. In far lower Grand Canyon, well below Separation Canyon, where Lake Mead used to be when it was full, there are huge, incredibly deep banks of silt along both sides of the river. This silt supports a forest in the desert. Some places way down near Grand Wash Cliffs this forest is so thick it looks like something on the East Coast. The trees are very large and very green, and grow close together, wherever they can get their roots down to the river water. I am not a tree expert but most of the trees seem to be cottonwoods. Sometimes these silt banks break off, not unlike the calving of glaciers in Glacier Bay, so that as you float by you will see huge chunks of them closer to water level, still with live trees attached, or big swaths of large trees fallen over in a horizontal position, still alive as well.
We floated a lot of this at night on my last trip, although I have floated it by day as well. Doing the night float, which has become very popular, you just turn the boats loose in the current and float down in the dark. It is a highlight of any Grand Canyon trip, especially if there is a moon. At one point, our boat was carried close to the left bank and I had to duck as we passed under a large horizontal cottonwood. That was a little too close for comfort, I thought, since they can fall into the river at any moment, but the boatman wasn't concerned.
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