HERBICIDE PROTEST
Dog owner stares down city workers
Dog owner Ida Duncan was so distraught over a city plan to treat Terwillegar Park with herbicide last Friday morning, she parked herself in front of the city’s tractor and refused to move for two hours.
She gained at least a partial victory. Managers were called and the tractor turned around rather than escalate the confrontation. They promised to return, but on the weekend, several rare plant experts slipped in, found the small white flowers of the locally rare Senecaroot, and convinced city crews they must hit the brakes and reconsider.
“I just feel really strongly about this,” said Duncan, concerned for the four dogs she regularly walks in the park. “Some places should just be left alone. If this stuff isn’t toxic, why do (workers) need to be all suited up?”
Dr. Luning Zhou, veterinarian at the Lakeview Animal Hospital, said herbicides can cause vomiting and convulsions in dogs if they’re exposed to higher concentrations. She recommended keeping pets off treated lawns for several days, but she couldn’t say what effect exposure would have with the amount Edmonton is planning to use.
This is the latest skirmish in Edmonton’s ongoing debate over when and if city crews should be use herbicides and pesticides as they maintain public spaces.
Crews stopped dropping Dursban, a neurotoxin, from helicopters this year in the fight against mosquitoes, although they still spray a similar product, Pyrate, in ditches. Last June, council banned the use of herbicides in public parks for anything but noxious weeds, after Edmonton’s medical officer of health urged action.
City crews want to treat noxious weeds in Terwillegar. Now a naturalized 186-hectare park and off-leash area, the former gravel pit is full of flowering noxious weeds — field scabious, Canada thistle, yellow tansy and others.
City team leader Dustin Bilyk said the plan is to treat the central meadow with the herbicide Milestone, applying it with a new “wet blade” they bought. It leaves the chemical on the plant as it cuts, letting it absorb and using a 10th of the amount of herbicide that spraying would use.
They have to act, he said. “That park right now, these weeds are taking over the natural species. We believe if we can control this large population, we can get the rest under control.”
“They will not come back,” he said, vowing to plant the area with something else to keep the wellestablished, invasive weeds at bay. As for health concerns, he said: “All herbicides only affect plants.”
Bilyk said they will be back with the tractor, but he’ll consult some of the city’s master naturalists and the Edmonton Native Plant Group first.
Cherry Dodd was one of two native plant specialists who combed the park Sunday, hunting for rare native species they believe would be harmed by the treatment. She worried applying herbicide in the meadow is a dangerous waste of time. The weeds are so well-established, the dirt beneath has become a huge seed bank, she said.