Santa Cruz, Calif. is a granola-eating, tie-dyed hippie retreat about 90 miles south of San Francisco. Now this laid-back town is reevaluating the pesticide ban it implemented two years ago.

Back in 2005, the Santa Cruz City Council placed a moratorium on the use of herbicide by county workers. Recently, the county’s Public Works Department reported it doesn’t have the money or the equipment to mow the blackberry, poison oak and scotch broom sprouting along 600 miles of county roads.

This year, about $500,000 is budgeted for mowing, and about $10 million for road maintenance. After the meeting Bolich said about $2 million would be needed to do the mowing right.

Supervisors Ellen Pirie and Mark Stone sponsored the moratorium two years ago to protect drinking water, children and salamanders, among other things, that might be threatened by the chemicals.

The conflict over how to deal with weeds sprouted last spring, after the first full crop bloomed following supervisors’ 2005 decision to stop using herbicides.

Before the herbicide moratorium, the county would mow 100 miles of road and spray another 200 with glyphosate, the active ingredient in herbicides like Roundup, every year. But mowing becomes more difficult without herbicide to help keep the weeds down, county Public Works officials have said. Fire danger adds to the problem, as firefighters often request the county not mow on hot, dry days when a mower could spark a wildfire.

To handle the out-of-control weeds, Public Works is researching new mowers that can work faster, and has discussed with vendors the need to develop safer herbicides. But so far, neither option has panned out.

That leaves Supervisor Tony Campos demanding that the board allow herbicide in select rural areas around the county.

“We can’t get our roadways fixed, it’s an embarrassment and this is contributing to it,” Campos said.

Source: www.santacruzsentinel.com