The not-so-dandy lion

By JODI HAUSEN Chronicle Staff Writer

At around 10 a.m. one day about three years ago, Nancy-Clair Laird, Ann Dye and their children were in Beall Park when a crew from Bozeman’s parks division began spraying herbicide on the grass.

Laird’s son, Will, who was 2 at the time, loves trucks. So he began to chase the sprayer, Laird said Saturday.

After that first incident, Laird called the city and asked to be notified the next time it planned to spray the park. The city did and Laird went out and watched. The workers “did laps around the slide and around the swings.” No warning signs were posted after the spraying and within an hour kids and dogs were playing on the chemically wet grass.

“That grass was not wet from water, it was wet from herbicides,” Laird said.

That experience was the impetus for Laird and Dye’s annual dandelion-pull party.

“If we can keep the dandelions at bay, maybe they won’t have to spray at all,” Laird said, standing in the park on the first truly hot day of 2008. “(The city) has agreed, since we’re doing our efforts, not to spray Beall Park.”

The arrangement makes Beall Park the only pesticide-free one in the city.

At 10 a.m. about 10 volunteers were pulling weeds from areas deemed most needful of the work. Red plastic tape tied around stakes marked off the targeted areas. Typically the party attracts more than 20 people.

“I think we’re competing with the weather and several events,” Laird said. “Main users of the park are kids under 10 and dogs, so we’re focusing on the turf where they play t-ball and softball.”

Carlos Holznagel has two young children and put in about 10 minutes of weed-pulling before he had to leave.

“I got at least 12,” he said smiling. “There are a lot of dandelions there, but with enough people, they can get them up.”

Britta Benson toiled with a weed-puller. She works with the Montana Conservation Corps, but was there as a private volunteer, she said. She has no children or dogs, but she wanted to support the effort.

“Having pesticides around dogs and kids is not a great thing,” she said. “I think it’s great that the city allows them to do this.”

A flier posted on the registration table spelled out the danger: 2,4-D, the herbicide used by the city, “and other pesticides have been linked to cancer, birth defects and liver dysfunction.”

In 2005, the Chronicle reported that the chemical was also linked to cancer in dogs.

Gene Augustine, of Eagle River, Alaska, swept the steps and ramp of the historic Beall Park building as volunteers worked nearby. He said he was a U.S. Air Force wildlife biologist who was preparing for his son, Jobe Bernier’s, wedding taking place later that day.

“Invasive species are a concern and dandelions are among them,” he said. “It’s a beautiful park and wonderfully maintained. To take care of the park and have the community come out and do this is wonderful. We all know how hard it is to fight dandelions.”

In addition to the annual pull party, several youth groups have helped to eradicate the yellow-flowered weeds. The Montana Conservation Corps, Boys and Girls Club and the Adolescent Resource Center have all contributed time and effort.

“The key thing is getting more youth groups involved,” Laird said.

Laird and Dye have also convinced the city to post spraying schedules for the city’s parks online and erect warning signs where spraying has just occurred. That way people can knowingly choose not to use a certain park on those days, Laird said.

Their next step will be to ask the Bozeman City Commission for more parks funding, which could allow workers to spend time aerating the grass, another means to weed prevention, she said.

“(The parks division) doesn’t like chemicals either,” she said, but it is the most cost-effective way to fight weeds. The city parks superintendent “feels strapped for time, money and labor.”

Reader Comments