In Colorado, they watched with foreboding:
The shores of their rivers were badly eroding,
So they looked for a deeprooted, robust old tree,
And they thought that the tamarisk their savior will be.
They imported some tamarisks, though they were alien,
Because the species was sturdy and valiant,
It came from a distant and hot climate land
Where it thrived in poor soil and in hot, shifting sand.
It looked for awhile that the deed was successful:
The trees did not find their new habitat stressful.
They ignored all state lines, expanded their sphere.
And made all the native trees disappear...
But by the time they reached Arizona,
They acquired a nasty and hostile persona:
Each tree sucked up water, to peoples' dismay,
At the rate of 500 gallons a day!
They fought the dense forest with determination.
With axe and with saw, for its elimination.
And finally brought in its principal foe:
The tamarisk beetle they let at it go!
The beetles did what they always liked doing:
The tamarisks' leaves they were day and night chewing,
Till the tamarisks' branches stood lifeless and bare,
Like grey sticks against the sunny blue air...
The battle's not over: new saplings are surging,
And from the tamarisks' roots are emerging.
And as for the beetles, deprived of their food,
They turned to the willows and the cottonwoods...
For trying the balance of Nature to shatter
Can be a quite tricky and dangerous matter:
Friend becomes foe, and gain turns to risk
And that is the lesson of the tamarisk!....