Dear HCN,
Only a couple of years
ago Utah Sen. Bob Bennett appeared at a town meeting and, in
response to some agitated inquiries, produced a magnificent color
photograph of a green canyon in southern Utah. This was his proof
that the area was even greener now than it was in another
photograph of the same canyon 20 years earlier.
I
vividly recall Bennett telling us why we were wrong in wanting to
limit grazing and turn the land into wilderness. We wondered
ourselves, looking at that impossibly lush color photo. And, he
wanted to know, what was so important about that riparian
thing?
Then a rowdy in the back shouted out:
“Bob, that green stuff you’re showing us is tamarisk!” And so it
was, a rapacious exotic just like you described in your May 25
stories. But Bennett was right about one thing: It was very
green.
Wes
Odell
Salt Lake City,
Utah
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline How tamarisk tripped a senator.
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