As residents geared up for a major protest against the planned use of herbicides, the state backed down and decided to delay the project for at least the rest of this year.
By Judy-Anne Goldman/Special to The Malibu Times
The California State Parks Department announced last Wednesday, Oct. 1, that it would postpone the use of herbicides to eradicate the highly invasive, nonnative arundo donax plant in Lower Topanga Canyon. Area residents, who had protested against the use of herbicides, met the decision with enthusiasm.
“We saw the response from the public that we needed to listen to,” Roy Stearns, deputy director of State Parks, said. “We’ve canceled the arundo application for at least this year. We may still do mechanical removal, but herbicides won’t be used.”
The state had prepared to use the herbicide glyphosate, commonly known as Rodeo. While the state contended the chemical would not cause harm to the environment or, in turn, to the residents, citizens felt it wasn’t possible to predict the environmental hazard. Also, successful mechanical experiments to eradicate the bamboo-like arundo fueled the residents’ feelings.
“The fifth graders at Calmont School have shown that they can kill arundo by cutting it down and snapping off regrowth every couple of weeks for a two-year period,” said John Earle, co-founder of Rhapsody in Green, a nonprofit organization that involves communities in Southern California to voluntarily restore the environment.
Earle, an environmental education specialist at schools in Southern California, helped cultivate the Calmont project. “Top experts say this can’t be done, which is astonishing. The kids have done it!”
Because removing the roots of the arundo can cause dangerous soil erosion, Earle said, the students also have been planting willow trees to prepare for the lack of stability as the arundo withers. Willow trees are native to Southern California.
Among those pleased with the decision was Rabyn Blake of the Executive Committee of the Santa Monica Mountains Coalition for Alternatives to Toxics (SCAT).
“We feel this is a huge breakthrough. We’re very happy this project offers peacemaking between agency and community,” Blake said.
According to State Parks Senior Environmentalist Suzanne Goode, it is important to get the nonnative, quickly spreading plant out of the watershed.
“It’s in many, many streams in Southern California,” she said. “It grows up to a foot or two per week and can spread one to two feet per year.”
Goode said that dangers resulting from the spread of arundo include displacing native plants and wildlife; creating an extreme fire hazard; reducing shade over streams that causes higher water temperatures that effects fish; and depleting water from streams as well as blocking streams which can lead to severe flooding.
Before the decision was announced, Goode demonstrated the herbicide application to a group of about 100 Topanga citizens on Wednesday, Oct. 1. Stearns said the attendees were respectful for the most part, but that it was clear that the public consensus was against using glyphosate.
“Even if we lose a little time combating the spread of arundo, it’s better to make a more cooperative effort,” Goode said. “We’re working on a plan to involve the community and volunteers. We’re going to give the community a chance to get rid of the arundo without herbicides.”
In sync with that idea, Stearns said that the State Parks Department has received an $18,000 grant from the Coastal Conservancy to create a post that will handle arundo hand-removal and volunteer coordinating.
“We applaud it. It’s a great offer,” Stearns said.
In defense of Rodeo use, Goode said, “The public has shown a lot of fear of glyphosate.”
However, she continued, the scientific community has shown it to be a generally benign agent – non-carcinogenic, biodegradable and active with a short half-life of six months or less. Depending on the success of mechanical techniques, Goode said that glyphosate might be reconsidered for use next year.