Dear Editor,
It is that time of year when the Town staff and many of our residents don their protective gear, grab their spray guns and set off to track down and kill every dandelion that they can find.
For those of us who grew up in a different culture, this antipathy to the harmless little dandelion is hard to understand. It has no health or other dangerous features, it is pretty, you can eat the roots and make wine from its flowers. One can only assume that every Canadian is given some sort of hate dandelion serum when he gets his measles vaccine.
The problem is that in this case, the cure is far more dangerous than the disease. Using weed sprays to eliminate dandelions has significant health, environmental and economic consequences. While the spray being used by the Town has been cleared for use on dandelions, we are increasingly aware that there is much that we do not know about the long term, accumulative dangers of herbicide sprays. Many that were approved in the past and which we assumed to be safe are now banned.
All pesticide sprays are potential dangerous in that they are intended to destroy or disrupt normal biological functions that are shared by many plants and animals. For this reason sprays are particularly dangerous for young children whose systems are more vulnerable. The environmental costs are equally important.
When we spray for dandelions we kill a range of other broad leaved flowering plants that occur naturally in our area.
Insects such as bees and a number of species of bird depend on these plants for food and dandelions are particular important because they flower early when other flowers are not available.
I am sure that many people have enjoyed the sight and songs of the bright yellow American Goldfinch as he flits around our gardens through the summer.
Goldfinches just love dandelion seed and getting rid of dandelions means less goldfinches.
Because of these issues, as well as the financial cost, five provinces and a growing number of municipalities across Canada have restricted or discontinued the cosmetic spraying of dandelions. Okotoks prides itself on its environmental record. The time is right for council to show leadership by reviewing its environmental policies with the intention of reducing and eventually eliminating the cosmetic spraying of dandelions.
At the same time, we all need to review our dependence on sprays with the view of finding less harmful ways of managing our lawns and gardens.
Chris Mills
Okotoks
