Dear Editor,
“Knotweed, not berries, sprayed,” Community, Sept. 1.
Why is the City of Richmond still using an indisputably proven carcinogen and digestion disruptor (Roundup) to suppress supposedly invasive plant species?
The mindset behind it is about 60 years old and long obsolete. There must be a calculus at City Hall that reads something like:
“Killing a few plants with poison (rather than pulling them out) is more equal than threatening an ecosystem (which empties into the Fraser) where many other small plants and animals live and thrive.”
This sign (pictured) was found next to the extension of Woodward Slough that was completed a few years ago — the city’s own nature renovation project to keep its ecological karmic balance in good stead. It must be the case that as Masters of Nature, the city departmental heads who make these (apparently routine) decisions determine who gets to live and who gets to die.
Perhaps after the election some personnel “Roundup” should be liberally applied through the hallways of select departments to ensure these toxic ideas don’t seep into other corners of the building, that is, before these islands become only habitable to the most resilient of cockroaches.
Glen Andersen
RICHMOND
