Open Space Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2015 12 09

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Open Space Advisory Board Meeting Minutes (Continued- Public Comments) Good morning Ms Brignull, I just found out about the OSAB meeting about weeds in the open spaces tomorrow night, and unfortunately will not be able to attend for medical reasons. In lieu of attending the meeting, I'd like to tell you about our experience with voles in our yard which were due to the no -weed- cutting policy. We have lived in Mesa Point for 33 years and our back yard is adjacent to the open space there. Three years ago we noticed our lawn being eaten by something and found out it was voles that the exterminator said came from the open space. Allowing the weeds to grow and a snowy winter gave them a good breeding ground. I contacted the City of Louisville about this. I told Chris Prah that our lawn was a small issue, but the City should try to correct the problem to prevent children from getting serious diseases from voles. I remembered in my college days (microbiology major) learning about small rodents carrying tularemia, and that rats and prairie dogs are hosts to the insects that transmit plague. Here's some online documentation of the diseases carried by voles, including plague: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadow vole Human diseases transmitted by microtine rodents include cystic hydatid disease, tularemia, bubonic plague, babesiosis, giardiasis and the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. [45j I also remember as a student hearing that if you can catch a rodent, don't, because that means they're sick. When our sons were young they brought me al kinds of "treasures" from the yard — frogs, worms, etc. — and would have brought me a vole if they had been there and had allowed themselves to be caught because they were sick. The City of Louisville came and looked at our yard and decided not to go back to cutting weeds. Chris Prah emailed me that voles did not carry serious diseases and sent me this link: http: / /www.cdc.gov /rodents /diseases /indirect.html which says they do carry serious diseases. The information from CSU she sent (attached) said control is best accomplished by cleaning up their breeding areas, NOT extermination. I got nowhere as one person on this issue and am glad the OSAB is looking into this. I cannot come to the meeting tomorrow night because I am taking an allergy treatment tomorrow that requires me to stay in my house and totally pure from today through next 6