Residents question pesticide use along Ojai Valley Trail
Feb. 5, 2013
Chris T. Wilson, OVN correspondent
In recent weeks Ventura County Parks Department did a round of semi-annual herbicide spraying along the Ojai Valley Trail — to the chagrin of several concerned citizens.
According to parks officials, the most effective means for controlling weeds along pathways is with spot-spray treatments of the common herbicide glyphosate, which is the main active ingredient in the over-the-counter name-brand herbicide RoundUp® by Monsanto.
Parks manager Theresa Lubin explained that with her budget and staffing levels, use of Roundup is the safest and most cost-effective way the county has found to control weeds along the pathways.
Lubin said the department spends between $25,000 and $30,000 annually to maintain 5,000 acres of trail area. The Ojai Valley Trail alone is 18 miles long from its start at Soule Park Golf Course to its end in Ventura near the beach. With just five county parks employees working to maintain the trails, there simply isn’t the time or resources to remove weeds any other way, Lubin said.
According to Lubin, the parks department has authorized the use of Roundup® a broad spectrum herbicide manufactured by Monsanto Corporation because it is considered safe, is available over the counter at any hardware or garden supply store and can be applied without a permit.
“From our perspective we don’t have the staff to remove weeds by hand,” Lubin said. “We’ve had a few people complain specifically about the spraying; not a lot. The complaints are mostly generic complaints about sensitivities to any type of chemicals.”
Lubin said the department does field complaints from cyclists who get flat tires from running over the common weed known as puncture vine, or goat heads. Lubin said, “It’s dangerous, so that’s one of the complaints we get about weeds growing by the trail.”
Kelly Pasco, one of the owners of the MOB Shop bike shop in downtown Ojai, said he doesn’t get a lot of complaints about weed control sprays being used along the trail, but that goat heads are better than pedaling through a mist of chemical spray drift.
“There’s nothing worse than the smell of RoundUp® in the morning,” Pasco said. “Also when they do weed whacking along the trail, the goat heads will spread on the bike path. But I’d rather have to deal with goat heads than have to breathe RoundUp®. There’s water there near the trail and lots of reasons we should be using less chemicals.”
Lubin’s response to critics has been to update both the county park’s website and the parks Facebook page with information on when and where spraying is set to occur.
“We put a notice up on the website and put signage along the trail when we are going to spray,” Lubin said.
Ojai physician Dr. Robin Bernhoft, who specializes in treating many types of chronic illness, said he has treated patients for symptoms related to acute exposure to herbicides such as Roundup. He said the symptoms can include burning eyes, head ache, rashes and blurred vision. “They breathe this stuff and 30 minutes later they can’t remember where they are going,” Bernhoft said.
An active proponent of seeking alternatives to chemical herbicide use, Bernhoft said he presented 63 peer-reviewed journal articles to Ventura County Supervisors at a public hearing on the issue last year, all of which showed correlation between glyphosate use and increases in certain cancers and Parkinson’s disease. Further, Bernhoft said he presented evidence that spraying of glyphosate in Topanga and Pasadena was shown to be ineffective at eradicating the “invasive non-native” reed grass known as Arundo Donax. “The stuff is ineffective and yet they keep spraying it,” he said.
Bernhoft claimed studies that have shown glyphosate to be safe were found to have been funded by Monsanto. One such study, published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health in late 2011, claimed that “no solid evidence linked glyphosate exposure to adverse developmental or reproductive effects at environmentally realistic exposure concentrations.”
The review authors included a “thank you” to Monsanto for funding their research. “The cat’s out of the bag on this one,” Bernhoft said. “Monsanto funded its own research to say their chemicals were safe. But in my humble opinion it’s insane to be spraying this stuff.”
Patty Pagaling leads the Pesticide Free Ojai group, which has changed its tack from big to small; instead of trying to eliminate the use of pesticides through negative propaganda, the group is now focusing on educating Ojai Valley gardeners and residents to transition to organics. “We’re really trying to come at it from a positive standpoint and show people that there are alternative ways to control weeds and pests without using poisons,” she said. In April organic farmer Steve Sprinkel of The Farmer and The Cook organic grocery and restaurant in Meiners Oaks will present a lecture on natural weed management techniques. Visit www.transition-to-organics.org to learn more about that event.
Meanwhile, the county parks department continues to use glyphosate on an as-needed basis. To learn more about the County of Ventura’s pest and weed management policy and find calendars of upcoming poison spraying visit www.venturaparks.org or log on to Facebook and search for “Ventura County Parks Department.”
To Will Carson — I think the others use of the word “pesticide” here is in a generic sense, such as in Wikipedia’s definition “Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest” (and they include weeds in the description), so as the Parks Dept is defining weeds and wildflowers as pests, yes technically herbicides are also pesticides.
I am not sure where you are getting your data. Maybe glyphosate doesn’t burn your eyes, but it has been proven to cause that and many other symptoms on humans and animals.
Data from the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Pesticide Illness Surveillance Program, which also tracks other agricultural chemicals, shows that glyphosate-related incidents are some of the most common.
It is also important to know whether a study showing data was funded by Monsanto or a completely independent third party. Maybe you can tell us your sources before you state that there is misinformation here.
It is in fact the Transition to Organics group that volunteered and executed the de-weeding…by hand…of Libby Park in order to stop their spraying of poisonous Round Up. I know because I was one of the volunteers. But since we are paying taxes, why should we be the ones to do their work? And why should they waste our money on poisons? Drink it and see what happens, if you think it isn’t poisonous.
That’s great you did that! Is it ongoing? Why shouldn’t there be more of it done with volunteers; it can be a way to “lead” the way for the governmental body administering such stuff. And isn’t it “we” since we all live and share in the amenities our area offers? It isn’t just “them” we should count on to change and do something we’re in favor of changing. It’s how things have to work sometimes. If the people lead the leaders will follow goes the mantra, and such action can inspire others including the leaders. If it means that much, you keep rolling up your sleeves and making phone calls till it changes, otherwise it comes off as “entitled whining” which seems to abound in our times.
It’s much worse than that, all the parks and schoolyards are sprayed with toxic herbicides. Then there are the orange groves that are also sprayed with toxins.
Ojai needs to ban the use of these toxins for the health and well being of all residents.
When is the Ventura County Watershed Protection
District going to post crimes against the working
poor by their glyphosate ally Monsanto? Workers
from Central and South America have rallied to the
defense of peasants living along major rivers.
MONSANTO MATA! We cannot breathe on Ventura Avenue
in Ojai. We are located next to the Monsanto and
VCWPD funded experiment on the Ventura River.
After seeing Ray and Condor’s comments, I emailed Theresa Lubin at County Parks and asked about the adopt-a-trail program. She replied that the county welcomes volunteers interested in helping maintain the trail. Contact her if you are interested in volunteering: (805) 654-3968 or by email at theresa.lubin@ventura.org to apply.
Yes, and great when long standing groups and businesses do “adopt-a-trail” projects so there is some kind of commitment that gets the work done. For example Pesticide Free Ojai could actually do something concrete to prevent the use of pesticides and adopt a given section of trail; Robin Bernhoft, M.D. could adopt another section–all digestible and maintainable sections. This would be a great outreach opportunity for these concerned citizens and they could talk to people while they hoe and be out and seen!
I like Ray’s idea – volunteering in many areas is popular, so why not weed abatement? Walk the trail with a weed abatement tool – using it of course – and get additional exercise!
Then there are minimum security prisoners working off fines, etc.
I’ve heard from gardening experts that white vinegar sprayed on ‘weeds’ will kill them. Maybe it could be used as a viable alternative.
white vinegar definitely works on weeds. I’ve tried it.
If the county is having such budget problems, then maybe Parks Manager Lubin would like to explain why they have workers out on a Sunday (which I would presume means over time pay) to replace the fence posts on the Ojai trail. And why does it take a crew of 8 or 10 men to do it, when the majority of them stand around doing nothing. Staffing doesn’t seem to be an issue there. I’ve been seeing this go on for years, so I’m not buying that its a budget issue.
Don’t just muse about it Marie, contact Lubin and ask her. It might be a different budget in a different area, or a darned good question to ask!
In the age of budget cuts and people not wanting to pay for government expenditures, we all anxiously await people who don’t like the use of legal pesticides like Roundup on the trail to volunteer for weed removal! Members of the community volunteer to a host of organizations in the valley doing weed removal by hand, i.e. trail maintenance by the forest service and land conservancy, hand removal of weeds in libby park, etc. etc. Hopefully interested people who don’t like the chemicals can grab hoes and volunteer. That has to be part of the equation as it is everywhere. The health benefits of fresh air and sunshine are other positives.
Not to worry. Suza Fraciza, our former mayor, is patrolling the trail on her horsE, Sparkplug. Both are full of oats!
The misinformation (by Chris primarily) communicated about glyophosate creates a fear of this as being poisonous and causing burning eyes and whatever. Please! First, it is NOT a pesticide. Second, it does not cause ‘burning eyes’. It is not poisonous to animals. Just plants. The chemical binds and interrupts the metabolic process of the plant and causes it to die. Animals are not affected. The devil is in the details on roundup. A certain mixture of glyphosate can include a ‘binder’ which IS -poisonous- to frogs and fish- But I don’t think that is the mixture used. Important to find out though. The emphasis on the protest should be to have details on the exact formulation they are using. 2-4 D in the mixture. OK. I would protest against that.