Save money by forgoing spray of poisons on lawns
Kennebec Journal - 5/17/2009.Letter to the editor by Nancy Peavey – In this serious budget crunch, our state and city governments are cutting back important services. Leaders should be looking for all unnecessary spending that can be eliminated. Spending our tax dollars on chemical herbicide and pesticide spraying of government property needs to stop. |
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The good, the bad, and the deadly of plants
Boston Globe - 5/17/2009.Book review by Anthony Doerr – When British soldiers arrived in Jamestown in 1676 to quell a Colonial rebellion, a few daring farmers slipped some jimson weed into the British chow. The soldiers hallucinated for 11 days. "One would blow up a feather in the air," writes a historian, "another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey." |
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Greener lawns not ‘greener’
Portland Press Herald - 5/16/2009.By John Richardson – If the lawns in your neighborhood look thicker and greener than they used to, there's an easy explanation. The use of lawn fertilizers and pesticides increased a whopping sevenfold during the 12-year period ending in 2007, according to the state Board of Pesticides Control. In 1995, Mainers spread about 800,000 pounds of products on their lawns. In 2007, the number was 6.2 million pounds. |
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The local UP-side of the global DOWN-turn
Common Dreams - 5/16/2009.By Gregg Kleiner – I grew up on thirteen acres of rural hillside five miles from the one-store, one-school town of Lookingglass, Oregon, where my parents raised me and my four siblings to always try to see the flecks of good in the bad, the stars between clouds in the night sky. |
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