I was riding my bicycle thinking I was improving my health and breathing some clean air away from the roads and cars. Then I noticed that the weeds along the fence were being poisoned with herbicide for most of the length of this trail. Pictured is a wild grapevine that could have been killed by simply cutting the vine at the root. As you can see, the vine isn’t even completely dead. And there were also large patches of dead grass that seemed to have been accidentally sprayed. I have to ask myself a few questions:
- What kind of poison is this? Update: I’ve been told it is mostly like Roundup, aka glyphosate, which destroys the plant by chelating and removing the nutrients. It appears it may evaporate in 24-72 hours or degrade in 7-14 days. But environmentalists say it lasts much longer, despite the marketing claims. Roundup also has the same effect on mammals, which means if you are exposed you won’t be able to absorb the nutrition in your food.
- How much did I breathe?
- Isn’t it ending up in the creek pictured in the background? And then the Ohio River, which is the drinking water supply?
- Why would it matter if the fences were covered in “weeds”?
- Why not plant less invasive flowering vines like morning glories?
- Why not make it functional and plant peas, beans or hops vines?
- Who do you contact to change this?
- And, why weren’t there any warning signs? I ride this trail regularly and at some point, I might have rode by when this poison was still active.
