Xcel Energy Foundation, the City of Commerce City, over 40 volunteers, and the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership joined forces on Friday and Saturday, October 6 & 7, to remove invasive tamarisk from the Sand Creek Regional Greenway in Commerce City.

A survey of Sand Creek this summer found over 100 tamarisk plants. Tamarisk, also called saltcedar, is a highly invasive weed that takes over creeks and streams all across the west. Each tamarisk consumes 300 gallons of water a day. They do not provide habitat for wildlife and choke out native plants species such as willows. Once established, tamarisk is almost impossible to remove.

Xcel Energy Foundation provided a major grant to the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership last spring to work on restoration of habitat along Sand Creek. After a survey of all invasive weeds, tamarisk was identified as the number one priority for immediate removal.

"The restoration of the Sand Creek corridor as a healthy ecosystem and recreation area is a priority in our community," stated Jim Rhodes of Xcel Energy Foundation. "We are proud to support this effort both financially and with volunteer labor."

The volunteers worked extremely hard - doing the backbreaking work of sawing down the tamarisk and dragging off the trunks and branches.

An energetic group of AmeriCorps volunteers, most of whom work in literacy in Commerce City schools, pitched in on Friday, removing large, long-established tamarisk from nearly 2 miles along Sand Creek just east of the Dahlia trailhead in Commerce City.

Saturday, another crew of volunteers from Xcel Energy, local neighbors, Commerce City Parks and Recreation, and the Sand Creek Regional Greenway Partnership completed the job, removing of over 300 tamarisks in a highly infested one mile section further downstream in the Pepper Riparian Area in Commerce City.