Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:38:09 -0400
From: Gretchen Niver
Subject: chemical spraying
I’m furious with the Power Company! Have you all noticed the many patches of brown, dying vegetation along the sides of roads lately? I was wondering if it could have been that hot to cause such die-offs, but this morning I discovered the real explanation…
I’d gone to the store early, and when I came back there was a truck spraying the opposite side of our ‘private’ road, under the power lines. I asked what they were doing, and they said the power company was having them spray Roundup to kill the vegetation because the trees were growing up into the lines. Unfortunately, they’d already finished spraying right across from my driveway, and halfway down the road.
We have lots of wildlife, especially rabbits, this year, that make their homes in the vegetation along our road. Plus, that little strip of trees is the only thing that’s blocking the view of the horrible clear cutting they did of the woods two years ago. The men swore that Roundup is safe for animals. It may not kill them outright, but it’ll certainly kill their habitat, and how many of those chemicals that are deemed ‘safe’ have proven not to be a decade later?
The men talked with their manager about my request for them to stop. The answer was that they could stop the spraying, but then would have to come back and cut down all the growth along the road. That would have been better, and, at least, left the low growing shrubs for the rabbits. Too bad I wasn’t home to stop them before they’d already sprayed near my house. I have a pond not that far away, and with all the rain we’re supposed to get, how is that Roundup not going to find it’s way into my pond?
I’m absolutely horrified that they have the right to just spray those nasty chemicals indiscriminately. It can’t be good for our environment, and all that brown vegetation along the roads looks terrible, . Of course, the best solution would be to have buried power and phone lines, but wouldn’t it also be helpful to employ more people to cut back vegetation, rather than to use chemicals?
Gretchen