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Re: TH: Re: Bird-Tree-Digest: V97 #29
Post-To: Tree-House@Majordomo.Flora.Com (Community Forestry) ----------
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RT Ellsberry wrote:
>
> Post-To: Tree-House@Majordomo.Flora.Com (Community Forestry) ----------
> -------
> Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 12:27:13 GMT
> From: Roberta Rivett <Roberta@Islandnet.com>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> On 14 May 1997 11:38:42 -0000, you wrote:
>
> >>As a municipal arborist for the past 15 years I have worked very hard to
> >find alternative methods of controling pests in urban trees. I have
> >fought gypsy moth with bacteria and fungi and elm leaf beetles with
> >wasps and bacteria etc... and in all cases have found long term
> >solutions to problems the pesticide applicators and pesticide companies
> >insist must be fought with chemicals.
>
> They may be long-term solutions and certainly are vastly preferable to the
> chemical approach, but I read in Edward Tenner's "Why Things Bite Back:
> Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences" that B.
> thuringiensis applications to control various larval forms are contributing
> to the development of strains resistant to the bacillus.
>
> Heavy sigh.
>
> This seems to be a matter, for the proprieter of a small garden, of
> thinking globally and acting locally. My neighbor's back garden is an
> uninterrupted sheet of exquisite carpet-like grass. Unfortunately his
> grass is slightly elevated from my almost grassless garden, so there is
> runoff. I am now in the process of building a berm along the property line
> to prevent the chemicals he applies weekly from poisoning my land. He is
> scornful of my unorderly garden; I despise his use of toxic substances.
> We endeavour to remain on speaking terms, but our philosophies are so
> greatly at variance that it is difficult.
>
> >How do we get pesticide application companies to behave in a responsible
> >manner, and get customers to accept the less than perfect lawns and bug
> >free plants?
>
> They make their living from applying pesticides. They believe in
> pesticides, at least I will give them credit for believing, rather than
> cynically disbelieving then recommending and applying them anyway. I cannot
> perusade my neighbor to have a less than perfect lawn, just as he cannot
> persuade me to have a perfect one. The matter is still regarded as one of
> personal preference and choice, rather than a united and informed approach
> to the stewardship of the land.
>
> I have control over only what happens on MY property. I get on my soap-box
> with some reasonably receptive people, for chemical-free gardening, for
> composting, for having bird and butterfly (and bat) -friendly space. But
> it can be difficult to sell the idea that the larval forms of butterflies
> will have made the buddleia leaves look pretty tattered by the time the
> blooms are out and the butterflies are swirling around the bush.
>
> Those who are in the business of applying toxins to the earth have a
> philosophy that nature must be controlled, and perfected to some peculiar
> standard. They are short-sighted, of course. But even if they
> acknowledge that, they may still look askance at my garden.
>
> I don't have an answer to your question. I know only that I work on the
> stewardship of my small piece of land very hard indeed.
>
> Roberta Rivett
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks Roberta
Lets stay on the soap boxes.
References: