IN FULL BLOOM
Budget cuts means more dandelions
With budget dollars shrinking, dandelions in city parks are growing.
The City of Regina was forced to cut costs due to an $8.3-million shortfall stemming from cutbacks to the grants-in-lieu program in the provincial budget. The result is a $63,000 reduction in the city’s fall herbicide spraying program.
“As a result of the large funding cuts by the province, some pest control programs were impacted,” said Ray Morgan, director of parks and opens spaces. “One was the fall herbicide program, that consisted of controlling dandelions and broad-leaf weeds.”
The majority of the $56,600 in cost savings comes from labour.
Instead of dealing with dandelions in parks, the city will now focus on sports fields.
“It is not that we are completely out of the dandelion control program,” said Morgan. “We are really into focusing on athletic fields, baseball diamonds and soccer pitches. As for regular parks and highway ditches, we are out of that business.”
The city will look at changing its cultural practices in parks, which includes how it mows, aerates and fertilizes, to deal with dandelions without herbicides.
“Our primary focus is on the athletic fields, and we can use the herbicide on that,” said Morgan. “There are other ways to control (dandelions). We have enough tools in the tool box. We just have one less right now.”
The reduction in the budget will not impact how the city deals with tent caterpillars, even if they seem more common right now.
“Tent caterpillars do have an impact on our trees, and those trees are an asset in the City of Regina,” Morgan said. “Since dandelions are just a nuisance weed, not a noxious weed, they have an impact on turf to some degree but it won’t cause any overwhelming impact of complete turf failure.”
On the topic of tree pests, it is time to remove the tree bands as they are now doing more harm than good for the trees.
“I know this sounds crazy, and it seems like the timing is off, but the bands are there to interrupt the egg-laying cycle,” said Russell Eirich, manager of forestry, pest control and horticulture. “As it is the summer months, tree bands, if they do get moisture underneath, will harm the tree in the longterm.”
So far, the city has sprayed 7,700 trees for tent caterpillars and cankerworms but with 20 days of over 30 kilometre-per-hour winds, it has made for slow progress.
Mosquito counts continue to be way down, compared to the historic average. This past week, three mosquitoes were found per trap. The average for this time of year is 11 mosquitoes per trap.
“The one that traditionally drives everyone crazy is Aedes vexans,” Eirich said. “In all of our 12 traps, we only captured one.”
The severe lack of rain in May has helped with mosquito numbers, and it could be awhile before numbers go up.
“The weather is working in our favour and our crews are out there trying to treat what is there,” Eirich said. “I think even with a little bit of rain, with things so dry, it would soak into the ground so fast that mosquitoes could not develop.”