Horticulture and Forestry Advisory Board Minutes 2007 06 07

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Horticultural & Forestry Advisory Board Minutes DATE Page 4 of 5 medians, schools and water supplies. He concluded by saying that there is a lot of chemical mixing going on and scientific literature is showing that the human body is a large chemistry set and the ball is in our court to move forward and there a lot of great options. Tim wonders if controlling dandelions is really a priority if the risks are so great. He believes that HFAB can have an open dialog to move in the right direction without polarization. He also brought in several books on managing city land without pesticides. Fred believes that as a board we do not function to make decisions. He says that we need procedures and protocols to make change. He believes that if Tim has a better idea then we need to be honest and fair if we are going to make a recommendation. He said that we define the problem and have a better idea it is incumbent upon us to do the right thing, but we need to take in to account the economics and the politics. Theresa said that she thinks the board can make a recommendation, but it is up to the citizens to start the move for change. Julann Andresen said that she would love to see Louisville become a safer place to raise families and believes there is a groundswell of people to support a chemical free city. Ty Gee thanked Tim for his presentation and said he got a lot out of it. He believes that there are things that we can do immediately. He gave two examples. The first involves the baseball fields behind his house that are dragged for weeds during the baseball season. When the season stops so does that draggingl and the vine that the city was trying to control comes back. He wonders why the city could not drag for the vine throughout the summer. The second example is the city's use of Round- Up along the fences in the ball field. After the grass is killed, weeds are the first plants to come up since their competition, the grass, was killed. He believes the city's practice is counter-productive. Ty's second point is that if we believe we have evidence that there is damage being done to us by pesticide use, we need to do something and he hopes that Tim can give his presentation to City Council. Mike said that he believes Scott Robson is listening to us (HFAB). Matt said that now that we have documentation of the dangers of the pesticides that the city is using, we have completed phase one and we can now move on to phase two. Gail Hartman said that educating the public is the key. The alternatives are out there and the alternatives will catch on if the public knows about