Spotted this sign in the window of the John Stanford School today. They’ll be spraying the herbicides Glyphosate (aka Roundup) and Diquat all around the school tomorrow (Wednesday), including in the playground, to “control weeds”.
Caveat vivor.
Spotted this sign in the window of the John Stanford School today. They’ll be spraying the herbicides Glyphosate (aka Roundup) and Diquat all around the school tomorrow (Wednesday), including in the playground, to “control weeds”.
Caveat vivor.
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There should be NO pesticides sprayed at JSIS this year. JSIS has been pesticide-free for two years, according to Sean McManus. SPS gardener assigned to JSIS. I will call in the morning to make sure no spraying takes place tomorrow.
JSIS parents and staff have been discussing an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) program for the school with the district for two years so at the very least no pesticides should be used there for any reason.
Thanks for the heads up, Jordan. This makes me crazy when the district posts these warnings either the day before a school break (this has happened twice) or now during summer vacation. Aargh!
Barb, thank you for contacting SPS about this! You Rock!
Thanks Barb for being on top of this! We definitely do not want these chemicals at our school.
Ugh! I have been having an email conversation with the head horticulturalist at Woodland Park Zoo about just this issue. The zoo practices IPM when it comes to bugs but they still use Roundup at the zoo and also at Woodland Park play area, which the zoo maintains. The horticulturalist seems open to reviewing their policy. But I still can’t understand why these major institutions think it’s OK to use, esp. in areas that are frequented by children. Additionally, they are an example! If homeowners see schools and zoos using Roundup then they assume it’s safe for home use. So frustrating!
UPDATE:
“That’s no problem. We won’t spray.”
Sean McManus, Senior Gardener, Seattle Public Schools
Planting ground covers (and applying water until established) that take over weedy spaces might work such as native strawberry or bramble or sedums. Great that this sitch was nipped in the bud.
Barb, how can we make all of our neighborhood schools pesticide-free? I just got back from vacation and noticed the little white “pesticide” flags all around Hamilton.
As far as Seattle Public Schools, what each school needs to do is establish an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan. Three years ago there was some structure for this, although there was only one school that had an IPM (it wasn’t JSIS). Since then any process for establishing an IPM has disappeared, apparently due to management changes and priorities.
At JSIS we will be trying again to get the right group of people together to allow us to agree on a schedule of tasks (weeding and mulching) that need to be completed so that spraying by district gardening crews will not be scheduled or even considered. This meeting is now on principal Alvarez’ agenda for the new school year. If we get enough schools scheduling such a meeting – or maybe one meeting will provide a model for other schools – perhaps we will eventually get an official district IPM policy.
Note that the primary work that must be done by the schools that don’t want spraying is HAND WEEDING – regular work parties required – someone needs to organize them and get volunteers to show up and do the work. The district will provide tools, gloves, other supplies to support the work parties.
I understand the Good Shepherd Center gardens do not use chemicals in their gardens. That’s what makes it such a sweet place.
I say NO to Roundup. Tell them to take their pesticides back where they found em.
They’re poisoning us and we don’t even seem to care.
Received an email update from another SPS employee:
“However, direction from our Facilities Director is that we aren’t able to commit to pesticide-free for any of our school sites. BUT, we can certainly work with schools to identify problem areas of a site that are often addressed with herbicides, and encourage volunteers to work on those areas.”
“we aren’t able to commit to” = will not
I personally have a strong bias against herbicides, but … if I were that school district facilities director, given public funds for grounds maintenance, I’d be in a tough spot, no? Let’s say for the sake of discussion, it costs 5 times as much to control weeds by hand. If I elect to spend that money, money that could have gone for other things, how do I explain? “I don’t believe in herbicides”? Dude, this is public money, not yours to indulge your whims.
Now, if you’re anti-herbicide, it may not be too hard to find medical research that supports you on human health grounds, which is probably the best angle for the district. (So what if glyphosate kills amphibians.) But if you’re accountable to people who aren’t anti-herbicide – I was just hanging out a couple days ago with a super nice, real progressive thinking guy who uses Roundup all over his garden – then it’s an `innocent until proven guilty’ situation and all Monsanto needs is to create a reasonable doubt, and you can’t move forward.
Our local heros in this battle, the Washington Toxics Coalition, happen to be right here in Wallingford, and unless they’ve changed a lot they’re very easy to talk to. If there’s a way to present a `guilty beyond reasonable doubt’ case against one of these herbicides, they’d know how to go about it.
If volunteers are needed to weed, please post that here! I bet there are a lot of people in this neighborhood that would be willing to weed if it means keeping these awful chemicals out of our neighborhood.
I caught my neighbor using Roundup the other day. He tried to hide it behind his back when he saw me. Then he tried to deny it, but I know what a bottle of Roundup when I see it. Who can I report him to?
thank you to everyone who is working on this issue for the benefit of our community !
use of Roundup is often due to ignorance about available alternatives. that is something we can do something about – getting the word out. posters around the neighborhood?
@Donn – I don’t believe that the school district gardeners do any hand weeding; they spray herbicides. Any hand weeding would be done by volunteers. So the choice is between the district gardeners spraying herbicides to control weeds, or students and families / neighbors weeding by hand and mulching. Gardeners are assigned to schools (at least during the school year) for two week periods so are on the school grounds, anyway, and can confirm whether hand weeding was sufficient or not.
What I would like to understand is how the decision is made to spray (or not.) In the case of JSIS, I thought we had been doing a very good job of keeping the weeds under control, better than prior years. It seems that they just schedule spraying herbicides as a standard practice.
@prop 3-contact coolio or kerrizor by any means available. they know the protocol.
They’ve sprayed the Wallingford Steps with Roundup THREE TIMES already. And still the blackberries live on – only thing green on that hillside.
I’m sorry, when did combating weeds become more important than combating low test scores, or combating cancer? (Both of which John Sanford spent his energies fighting, RIP. I don’t think weeds even made it onto his list.)
And it’s only warm enough 2-3 months a year for weeds to even grow here… why ruin summer with Roundup?
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/06/09/monsanto-roundup-found-to-be-carcinogenic.aspx
Isn’t protecting the children from such threats part of the principal’s job? Where is she?
@Mike – The people doing the spraying are responsible for taking care of the grounds at all schools. From the Seattle Public Schools website: “Grounds Services Department supports the learning process by promoting and maintaining a safe and healthy outdoor environment for students and community.”
Principal Alvarez is very supportive of all efforts to make the JSIS grounds pesticide-free. But the district grounds staff do not consult with her before they take action at the school. It would seem that grounds maintenance decisions are made at district headquarters and individual principals
are not consulted in advance.