Reduction of Pesticide Use: Where Each Council Candidate Stands

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"In the City of Davis, pesticide/herbicide use continues to be the primary method for control of insect and plant pests. Use of some of these chemicals has increased in recent years or plateaued. Currently, the City's Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is only an advisory position. What administrative changes or changes in specific practices do you believe can be implemented to reduce overall pesticide/herbicide use by Davis and to encourage the use of least toxic controls by the City and its residents?" -Sierra Club Yolano Group

I have always been a believer in and practitioner of a “least force necessary” approach to insects and weeds, and would like to see the city do the same. Although I am a hard-liner when it comes to spiders in the house due to a serious spider bite allergy, I am quite tolerant when it comes to similar critters who reside outside.

I think we need to educate people, including city staff and contractors, and to adjust our aesthetic standards to embrace the variety of plants and animals that create a healthy ecosystem and provide food for birds and other animals.

Many problems will balance themselves out. Some wanted to cut down their Hackberry trees during the annus horribilis of the Hackberry aphid infestation, but the problem self-corrected after a few years. For other problems, mechanical methods or the introduction of natural predators can replace the use of toxic chemicals.

IPM is an essential way to handle “pest” and plant control. It often saves money and often “solves” the real problem. It also minimizes potentially toxic exposures to our environment and us.

The part-time IPM employee position should be expanded to full time and be provided with the infrastructure to support having 2-3 UCD interns to work with him during the year.

I can foresee that within a short period of this expanded role, there could be some mandatory policies put in place that make IPM a permanent way of doing things here in Davis.

New water quality concerns related to green waste practices have emerged among state storm water program regulators. Residues of urban yard waste have been identified as contributing to the depletion of dissolved oxygen and increases in algae growth in waterways, and, consequently, to adverse affects on aquatic life forms. In response communities have been required to prevent green waste from entering storm water systems that discharge to waterways.

The City should engage the public in a discussion on a reasonable program that will move us to green waste containerization. There will still need to be street pile collection during the time of the year when leaves would overwhelm a 96 gallon container. There could also be street pickup on a once a month basis.

As you know, I voted to restore the IPM position in the FY 2011-2012 budget. I voted for it because I agree that we need to reduce the harmful chemicals in our community, particularly in areas where our children – including my children – play. Effective, sensible IPM practices should not be advisory – they should be required.

We also need to realize that most pesticide/herbicide use is on residential private property and the IPM staff member should be focused on educational efforts to change our practices with respect to our own homes.

There is so much to be done in this area, some of it easy and some of it difficult. For instance, when the City had a demonstration low water and pesticide free area in South Davis, there were daily complaints by residents about the weeds and dead plants. Once city staff labeled the area, residents started complimenting the city on its demonstration area.

Also, overwatering contributes to weed growth and thus potential pesticide use. The city could easily install meters to not water when the soil is wet, this is an effective way in either your home or in the city plantings to reduce water and pesticide use. This is a simple but effective change. I believe that the city also reports to the NRC the volume of pesticide used each year. This report should be published/reported on in The Enterprise and other media. Using fewer pesticides is sometimes more labor intensive and when city budgets are under scrutiny, programs like IPM can be easily overlooked.

The basic point is: we need to be much more innovative with how we deal with all these issues, including IPM. Other cities in CA have used various methods to not increase labor and costs and have interesting, innovative IPM programs. We can look to the City of Arcata, which has converted its plantings to low water plants. In addition they trained city staff on removal of weeds from cracks using blowtorches and trowels. Also, they have a city shepherd (with a herd of goats) and use probation crews for more labor-intensive tasks. As a city council member, I would be interested in having the NRC compile a list of recommendations that keep costs the same, or save them an have dual benefits as those I have described. Once this list is created, I would push city staff to implement. The real key in getting all the new changes implemented in Arcata?

All the long time city staff (that was resistant to innovative changes), retired. New city staff was much more amenable to trying out new ideas.
Our IPM staffer, Martin, is great, and if given adequate resources to actually do his job, we could see the City of Davis moving in the right direction.

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