Help us DETOX Boulder County!
After six years of unlawful aerial applications on Boulder county open space land, a doubly unlawful aerial application in Lyons done against the pesticide’s label instructions, and almost two years of community engagement, the County has chosen to move forward with an Integrated Weed Management Plan (IWMP) that includes drone application of pesticides on publicly owned open spaces. YOU can help stop this detrimental addition to the IWMP by aligning with a group of citizens who have filed a pro se lawsuit against the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) and Boulder County Parks and Open Space (BCPOS):
1) Join "Detox Boulder County". A group of Boulder county residents has filed an official complaint against the County to stop BCPOS from using synthetic pesticides and aerial applications. When you join Detox Boulder County, you lend weight to the lawsuit by adding to the number of people supporting our efforts. To be part of this movement, please click the “subscribe now” button or send an email to: DetoxBoulderCounty@gmail.com
2) Donate to the Cause. Many people have been working tirelessly for two years to present pesticide alternatives and compromise with the County to no avail. Aerial spraying in any form will not be tolerated. Go to Detox Boulder County's GiveSendGo website to donate.
3) Tell Your Friends! Our collective villages need to be united:
https://www.pesticidesbouldercounty.org
Every person that joins Detox Boulder County, every dollar donated, and every voice sharing counts toward protecting our families and environment! Thank you for helping keep pesticides off our valuable open spaces.
Guest Opinion
On a recent hike on the North Foothills gravel trail I noticed some signs explaining to me that my hiking there is not compatible with prairie dogs. It didn’t explain whether I was bothering the prairie dogs, or they were bothering me; as a frequent hiker there and the far more prairie dog dense Sage/Degge/HiddenValley I personally never had an incompatible interaction with a P-dog. ‘Incompatible’ reminds me of ‘not economically viable’ line from Falling Down.
Apparently, this incompatibility is so severe that they have launched a lethal control 'kill P-dogs in their dens' program. A 2023 Q and A with OSMP helps us get a grip on their logic for a lethal approach to the small squeaky rodents:
The Shared Learning Collaborative project on the Minnestrista II and Canino leasehold is intended to address the question of co-existence. [Huh? They want to address the question of co-existence? Didn’t Kant and Nietzsche already do that?]
Prairie dog populations expand and contract over time based in various environmental conditions. [I wonder what lengthy publication discovered that revelation.]
Wet years that result in abundant vegetation growth naturally reduce prairie dog colony size on OSMP land. [Wouldn’t wet years result in more vegetation, like the massive growth of natural alfalfa on Degge last year?]
We are working to mimic this natural process by seeding species that rapidly grow tall and dense in the summer on irrigated fields that are occupied by prairie dogs. [I get it, they have a two-point plan; feed them and kill them.]
It generally does make sense to start lethal control activities as early in the year as possible. [Something about ‘lethal control activities’ and ‘makes sense’ in the same sentence bugs me.]
With in house capacity for lethal control, contractor availability will no longer be a limiting factor on the timing of removal.
[Ok, so we are training OSMP rangers and staff in lethal rodent skills.]
There also is another micromanaging program for wet trails, suggesting; 'too much time and money on our hands'; called the Muddy Trail Project. Here is their explanation for the annoying hiking closures of the Degge/Sage trails:
Degge and Sage have been closed recently due to our muddy trails program. Our goal with this program is to provide sustainable recreation access while protecting trailside natural resources...to protect both the new trail alignments from long-term erosion and provide the opportunity for trailside vegetation to grow in an area where vegetation growth is challenging and consistently adapting with visitor expectations.
[Closing popular hiking trails is ‘adapting to visitor expectations?]
Here is what I wrote back to them:
The muddy trails program in Degge Hidden valley reduces people stepping to the side of the trail in muddy conditions, overall result is protecting about .000001 percent of the grass in the area. The prairie dogs don't care about that grass, the hikers don't care about that grass, they want sustainable recreation access, the only person who cares is the person in charge of the Muddy Trails program.
The muddy trails closures make sense for mtn bikes due to ruts, and as a mtn biker I respect that. For hikers though, it is a radical deviation from logic.
In short, the overall effect on the muddy trail closures for hikers does nothing for the environment except reduce visitor opportunities. You want to do something for a sustainable and scenic environment and for existing wildlife; do the following:
1. Don’t kill P-dogs. They support raptors and other predators; if there are so many that they become ‘incompatible’; just import endangered ferrets to have a natural predator prey ecosystem.
2. Plant scenic pine trees along the trails for bird and other wildlife refuge/nesting/shade features and install nesting platforms for raptors.
3. Install 3 ft. diameter water troughs for dry months and have a volunteer program to refill them. Lots of hikers would be happy to hike in a gallon jug of water to supply drinking troughs for wildlife.
4. Provide year-round stable vegetation that supports herbivores, and thus predators also. We all like to see wildlife and birds on our hikes, rather than signs trying to explain a lethality project done by OSMP employees.