A Pesticide Ban Is Coming To A City Near You
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On October 6, 2015 Montgomery County city council in a 6 to 3 decision voted to ban over 100 active ingredients they have classified as toxic giving them restricted non essential pesticide in the county for control of lawn pests, weeds and diseases for all private properties.
But conveniently allowed some of the same toxic pesticides including the highly targeted neonicatenoids to be used by county employees on all its own sports fields and golf courses.
Councilmembers Sidney Katz, Craig Rice and Roger Berliner have voted against the ban.
How convenient for politicians to pass a law that basically tells their citizens you will have to have a crapy looking lawn because those pesticides are killing your kids but we will continue to uses them and allow us to continue to kill your kids for you. Why because we know you can’t have a good looking lawn with just cultural practices but we are the government and we can have a double standard.
This is what happened in Montgomery County Maryland and this is not the first time it’s happened, they are taking their cues from Canada and the sweeping pesticide bans that took place their.
Ontario Canada Cosmetic Pesticide Ban
Ogunquit Maine Imposes Pesticide Ban only pesticides allowed are organic or FIFRA exempt.
A 1,300 person community in Maine
Guided only by Carson’s 1962 book, “Silent Spring,”
Cosmetic Lawn Pesticide ban Takoma Park, MD.
The Main Proponent of the Bill George Leventhal
I have two disappointments with the way this happened one that the proponents of this bill did not care to listen to any other options a total ban or no deal, I have no problem with having an initiative or mandate for a city reduce pesticides on city or county property even to decide not use any, but what I’m really disappointed in is the fact that they showed no leadership no creativity and no inspiration.
They could have used the opportunity to impose on themselves a ban and worked with all the talented people in the Maryland state universities entomologists, pathologist, agronomist and companies that manufacture natural and biological products to develop the first integrated pest management program and organic that is sustainable to inspire their county use it in home owners associations and residential private property.
And after demonstrating it could work start mandating a county wide reduction program instead they did the complete opposite the reality is there are no visionaries no one to look up to in government to inspire people to do great things to achieve the impossible no Martin Luther kings to share a dream, no John F Kennedy’s to make us reach for the stars, no Ronald Reagan’s to let us believe in the greatness of the American Spirit.
So we have resulted to the equivalent of a Coup d’état, we can’t lead so we will imposes the view of a few on the majority, proving that absolute power corrupts absolutely. When one party rules there is no dialog no concern for personal property rights.
My second disappointment is that as hard as I looked I could find no response or direct comment from the one organization that is supposed to be supporting us The National Pest Management Association, nor the Maryland Pest Management Association this to me is disappointing.
For those of you that do not know what is going on I will in this podcast review the bill with you, I spent almost all day Sunday’s reading through the 127 pages that was published by the Montgomery County.
I will include links to the Washington Post article that covered the story as it unfolded the videos that have been put out by the supporters of the bill as well as the list of pesticides and the their bans that are taking place now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-countys-proposed-curbs-on-lawn-pesticides-face-amendment/2015/06/13/6c13baf8-111b-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/should-montgomery-county-be-banning-cosmetic-pesticides/2015/03/11/ce81d03a-c742-11e4-bea5-b893e7ac3fb3_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/proposed-ban-on-cosmetic-pesticides-causes-turf-war-in-montgomery-county/2015/03/08/51533626-bdc9-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/five-steps-on-the-path-to-a-nanny-state/2015/03/09/4e56a74a-c667-11e4-a199-6cb5e63819d2_story.html
http://safegrowmontgomery.org/what-does-bill-52-14-do/
Bill 52-14 127 Page Memorandum
http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=6&event_id=4521&meta_id=88322
Montgomery County Commissioner Nancy Floren Video
http://www.mymcmedia.org/county-council-expected-to-enact-pesticide-bill-video/
Gaithersburg resident Jennifer Quinn is a volunteer stating that with cultural practice you never need a pesticide on your lawn talk about ignorant propaganda why could they do it in their own parks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY1o08Cgp2gll
Video Depicting all lawn pesticides as Toxic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDmlNZjGZkc
Video With Jay Feldman of Beyond Pesticides
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ah8Mbvrhuo
Jody Fetzer of Montgomery County Parks Department Testifying on the Failure of the bans in Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qUJ8as0Yg8
More Videos on The Montgomery County Pesticide Ban
http://www.mymcmedia.org/safe-grow-montgomery-supports-bill-15-42-video/
List of Pesticides Banned in Ontario Canada
http://www.ontario.ca/page/pesticides-home-lawns-and-gardens
List of Pesticides Banned In Takoma Park MD
http://www.takomaparkmd.gov/safegrow/list-of-restricted-pesticides
This is not Integrated Pest Management.
Don’t you agree though that the only reason we have grass is that it is the cheapest thing that a contractor can put down to cover the ground after constructing a home?
The law bans pesticide use for cosmetic purposes in lawns. There is nothing wrong with that. Dandelions are the only nonnative plant that grows prolifically yet does no harm to native ecosystems. If you plant a stand of clover and mow it 3 times a year, in three years nearly every nutrient deficiency will be eliminated from the soil. Why are we fighting these plants? Why give a bunch of kids recessed testicles and enlarged clitorises because homeowners are brainwashed by the chemical companies and need to keep up with the jones’.
2,4-D is bad. The massive amount of turfgrass we have is bad. Its the cheapest thing to install yet the most expensive to maintain. We have it for no purpose other than the fact that it is the cheapest thing a homebuilder can install after a home is constructed. Its so cheap that even if your lawn got destroyed by chinch bugs or brown patch, you could install a new endophyte enhanced tall fescue lawn with a bunch of leaf humus for the same cost as a lawncare contract for a year. I dont know what you grow down south but zoysiagrass in ohio is pest, weed, disease free and drought tolerant.
Zoysia grass in Ohio is remarkable. No one grows it though because it doesnt conform to what the chemical companies market to us. You need an all bluegrass lawn. What they dont know though is that the homebuilder didnt replace their topsoil after they built their home. And the chemical companies are the same people who sell the grass seed. People dont know that bluegrass is super high maintenance especially when you seed crap ryegrass in the mix. Do you know how long its going to take a stand of bluegrass to overtake the perennial ryegrass? It probably wont happen unless you put a lot of care into it. Thats why they seed fine fescue into seed mixes. 20-30years after seeding a 30-30-30 seed mix youll have a fine fescue lawn. Not a bluegrass lawn. Thats 20-30 years of fighting crabgrass, nutsedge and everything else. Mature stands of fine fescue are heaven. They are naturally weed resistant, soft and cushiony. They will even grow where perennial bluegrass wont, in the shade. We are stuck as a people.
If anyone did a survey and asked how many homeowners use their front lawn, Ill bet you around 70% of homeowners do no activity on their front lawn besides cut it and cut through it to get somewhere else. With all that research people do, no one ever asks that question.
People accept giant expanses of turfgrass as manditory, because it compliments the American style of landscape that was originally copied from the French style of formal landscaping. Thats some bull doody if i ever heard it. My yard would look just as good under a canopy of trees underplanted with mayapple, toothwort, bloodroot, blue cohosh, splitleaf, ferns, white snakeroot, and some pot to make this load of bullshit we are fed more pallatable.
Didnt you say the law does not ban the use of pesticides in lawns to control invasive species? That opens the door quite a bit.
You said too that they should have tested on their county properties to see if they could practically upkeep turf without the use of chemicals? Im pretty sure they did from the beginning of time up until the 1920’s.
The law just bans pesticides for cosmetic purposes, not for recreational purposes like on ballfields and golfcourses. Im sure if people actually had a legitimate use for their stand of turfgrass that the city would allow a non native pest to be controlled by the use of pesticides. It seems like there is wiggle room for the city to provide permits in certain circumstances. 2,4-d usage should be regulated. Its not that much different from agent orange.
I am a horticulturist like you and I own a pest control company where I sell chemical pest control to customers too. Pesticides help my customers and help feed my family. But come on now. Don’t be that pissed off at this law Frank.
Yea i agree with the premise that lawn care is the way it is, but when you violate basic owner rights you enter into nanny state without any scientific proof. If you want to ban pesticide from being purchased and applied by untrained home owners im ok with that too. But the hypocrisy in the law is that they didnt apply the same standards to them selves as to pest control companies and private property.
I understand your point of view Frank,
thanks for understanding. Im a bit passionate about that topic, if you couldn’t tell. Turfgrass, yuck. 2,4-d yuck. You can tell those politicians are on a power trip for sure though.