To the editor:
Re:”Despite Questions, Pesticide Use Persists in Coastal Towns” [WWF Nov. 06]
As a member of the Island Institute and a resident of the Town of Brunswick, I am writing to point out a series of major inaccuracies in the above mentioned article.
On page 17, you state that the town of Brunswick “. . .banned pesticide application by private landowners in the aquifer zone . . . and the city routinely treated the playing fields with pesticides.”
…As a statement of fact, the town does not ban the use of pesticides by homeowners in the Aquifer Protection Zone because, after lengthy public debate, it was deemed impossible to enforce. Although officials realize that the average homeowner presents much more of a risk to the environment with the unregulated use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, there was no public stomach or will to pass such an ordinance…
The town has had a long-standing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program, abiding by the motto “Think First, Spray Last”. As Peter Baecher of the town’s Parks and Recreation Department testified at a public hearing last February, the town’s use of any chemical herbicide has been minuscule over the past several years, and almost exclusively for the control of poison ivy. And if applications were done, they were done only by a licensed professional applicator, not untrained staff…
Brunswick has been both realistic and progressive in its policies toward minimizing the use of chemicals in the maintenance of its sports fields for several years….
James W. Ecker
New England Organics
Portland