The government has spent $2.1 million to get rid of the carrizo cane along 25 and a half acres of land by the river.

Officials at LCC's Environmental Science Center believe the cane can be removed in a much more cost effective way.

They have a student conducting experiments to prove it:

"Its a real difficult plant to get rid of. Some people say it’s the fastest growing plant in the world but on the rizones itself you can see all the areas where the new growth would start."

Rizones are the root of the plant.

“Right now Border Patrol is using herbicide to remove it and when you cut it, the herbicide will go down into the rizone and kill it."

Well, they hope it kills it; it doesn't always do that.

He believes there are more effective ways to get rid of the cane and an LCC student has proved it.

She's been working with her teacher, retired biologist Dr. Jim Earhart, on experimenting with herbicide, mechanical removal, and with livestock. And out of the three, she has determined the herbicide method of removal is least effective:

"What we observed since now its not really effective. It kills a lot of plants but not really the cane."

"The most rapid way is to use a bobcat tractor with a bucket on it and we set the bucket on the ground and run through and chop the cane then we come back with a rake and rake out the rizones those underground stems pile them up and let them die that’s all mechanical."

"I think its better to remove mechanically and also with the help of grazing animals."

As a simple solution, Tom Miller, Director of the Environmental Science Center at LCC, believes the government should invest in livestock or offer incentives to ranchers to bring their animals to eat the cane. This he says would be the most cost effective method of controlling the carrizo cane.

We did contact Border Patrol and they refused to comment.