Re: [Native Gardening] Re: Herbicides in the environment....My last word on the subject

 

No one is disputing the fact that chemicals like Glyphosate are not poisonous and thus I would never encourage anyone to drink or bathe in it. My only argument is that if used properly and with caution, it can be an invaluable tool in achieving the goal of restoring a natural community but I also strongly advocate taking an IPM approach to all invasive species, always use the least toxic measure first and only use chemicals when all other approaches have failed. In a perfect world, chemicals would never be needed but this is not a perfect world and the risks of using chemicals must be weighed against the mounting negative effects that invasive plants are having on natural areas. The decision to use a herbicide is much like deciding whether to use an antibiotic against a virus. The risk of side effects from an antibiotic are outweighed by the benefits of saving a patient from infection. Frank We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac --- On Sat, 4/7/12, firekeeper38 <firekeeper38@yahoo.com> wrote: From: firekeeper38 <firekeeper38@yahoo.com> Subject: [Native Gardening] Re: Herbicides in the environment To: nativegardening@yahoogroups.com Date: Saturday, April 7, 2012, 1:16 PM   I can certainly understand your frustration around *that* topic. You may want to look around carefully and see if you can find any comment of mine stating that conservationists must never use this product.. My whole commentary has been about the underestimation of Glyphosate and Perchloram,'s (I'll certainly add that in the face of you generalization) damage, when it has been proven otherwise. Any person who must handle herbicides and pesticides cannot afford to beleive the company hype (even 3rd hand via someone we trust) to such a degree that when news of it's problems come forth, we ignore the new evidence in favor of that which we learned and are comfortable with. I am fully in favor of adding more manpower to the efforts of restoring nature, which is in durned bad shape at this point. For the honeysuckle, jasmine, kudzu I would hope that most people start with mecanical removal, weeds, after all, are natives too, and are the land's way of healing disturbance. Yours, Pego --- frank lawrence wrote: > > How does one kill Honeysuclke without herbicides ? You cut it down to the ground and it just resprouts and if you dig it out of the ground , you disturb the soil so much that you get 10 times more weeds the following year. I can't see how its possible to restore a ecosystem without herbicides?

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