Dear Editor,
BC Hydro’s announcement of their five-year plan to start vegetation removal under power lines, ROWs and myriads of other structures has stirred strong concerns throughout the Valley and province.
Their “Integrated Vegetation Management Program” explains that they will be using a combination of mechanical and herbicide treatments. Their herbicide section carefully details their herbicide use and the pains they will take to ensure worker and public safety. It would make one think that these herbicides are so safe, it is the most cost-effective method and if herbicides aren’t used our electric bills will skyrocket (bit.ly/1TwPk9O). My concern is that non-selective, broad herbicide spraying is as dangerous as you can get.
Broad spraying kills everything in its path, it doesn’t target just noxious weeds. It kills all plants, birds, animals (or makes them very ill) and any soil life in contact with the herbicide. This then renders the soil useless for growing anything but noxious weeds, therefore, needing more applications of herbicides. This has been the practice for decades.
Broad, non-selective spraying should be banned, period. I am writing this as the fourth boil water advisory has been issued in the Valley.
The hottest year ever recorded was in 2015 and we are experiencing climate weirding now, not sometime in the future. It is time to get creative solving problems and not rely on the most “cost- effective” means anymore. An example of creativity is Conrad Lindblom’s use of his goat herd to manage noxious weeds that BC Hydro already employs (bit.ly/1RSWstO).
We have inflicted enough damage onto the planet, it is burping loudly. As David Suzuki says, “Whatever we do to our environment, we do to ourselves.” Would you take a bath in glyphosate? Let’s give broad non-selective herbicide spraying its own due death.
Lauren Sipone
Comox