Willfully neglected land bordering the railroad tracks along Leucadia's Vulcan Ave. and Highway 101 corridor invited invasive noxious weeds that thrive in harsh, barren condition. At last year's Environmental Workplan "Lite" presentation (after stripping the Commission of it's expertise and advocacy), Maggie Houlihan asked Russell Levan to give an update on his spring volunteer effort to eradicate goathead thorns.
Poisonous Behavior, Contempt for Citizens
Stocks simply has to play the bully with Russell Levan's magnanimous efforts (
see EYNU post today) by negating them and that's his favorite poison. But there is more, because he's spewing dangerously false nonsense from his gardener . . er neighbor across the street . . . and misrepresenting the harmlessness of spraying herbicides. This is the Leucadia railroad corridor where, by the way, he has a child at Paul Ecke Central School who plays outside within a stone's throw of the spray zone he's championing. Seriously.
Reality Check, Healthy Soil
First, here's a look at the puncture vine up close. It is a menace, no argument and it thrives on scorched earth, where residents who try to place mulch on this bare dusty earth can be ticketed.
Let’s face it, the soil surface wants to be covered. You can either choose what the cover will be or Nature will do it herself and you might not like the results.
Forget about eradicating every weed, work on the soil and the weed war will be over. In the meantime, keep mulching.
Here is another basic reality of how life within an ecosystem works via
Wikipedia and the ecological principals are verifiable in organic studies and reports or anyone's back yard where growing healthy soils is the goal.
In smaller areas, puncture vine is best controlled with manual removal using a hoe to cut the plant off at its taproot. While this is effective, removing the entire plant by gripping the taproot, stem or trunk and pulling upward to remove the taproot is far more effective. This requires monitoring the area and removing the weed throughout the preceding time (late spring and early summer in many temperate areas). This will greatly reduce the prevalence of the weed the following year. Mowing is not an effective method of eradication, because the plant grows flat against the ground.
Another avenue of physical eradication is to crowd out the opportunistic weed by providing good competition from favorable plants. Aerating compacted sites and planting competitive desirable plants including broad-leaved grasses such as St Augustine can reduce the impact of puncture vine by reducing resources available to the weed.
So, we have prisoners along the corridor working off their community service time by raking away any life on the surface of the earth, clearing away mulch and inexplicably not directed to focus on eradicating goathead thorns down to its tap root. Clueless.
Poison the Earth, Scorch the Earth
Of course there are seeds galore with this plant. It is a survivor. But spraying simple salt water isn't going to accomplish anything except killing the soil. A coastal area as ours already has a great deal of salt which stays in the soil. It's crazy talk to say we should find a truck and spray some more, because this isn't going to bring the results Stocks is prophesying based on hearsay anyway.
Did this supposedly educated man say that RoundUp is safe? This is a jaw dropping and dangerous lie given a decade of research and public education to the contrary. Monsanto is a menace to the entire globe and only corporate lackey's are saying otherwise.
Today's article is a good one
here, featuring a CA republican lobbying on behalf a a giant Pesticide Company. There probably isn't a day where there isn't something revealed around the globe that Monsanto, Dow or other Corporate Chemical Giant is reprehensibly doing.
Here's a classic full length film Monsanto, hands down the worst, most dangerous with chemical agriculture out of control.
Best viewed at YouTube
here.
There are countless metaphors for this story of a noxious menace stopping us from biking and walking safely or the direction to poison our common property and open lands and to discourage community, volunteering and citizen participation. All these metaphorical references are begging to be shared, but that won't be happening today.
