Op-ed: GMP herbicide application not a green way to go

By Beverly Lauren

Beginning in the spring, Green Mountain Power will be applying herbicides under power lines and distribution lines in our area.

Notification was sent out to GMP customers in previous billings. However, some may have missed the importance of the notification and tossed it in the wastebasket instead. There will be public notification as well as it gets closer to the time of application.

If customers are within 1,000 feet of GMP lines and do not want any herbicides applied near or on their property, call GMP — the number is on your bill — and ask for your account to be coded for non-spraying of herbicides. This phone call should be made at the beginning of every new year to ensure that that coded status remains on your account.

I understand why the brush and small trees need to be controlled. Maybe goats, chainsaws and scythes are too inconvenient and time consuming. I do know that they are certainly much more labor intensive than spraying.

These methods, however, do complement Vermont as being a “green state” in a much more sustainable way than the increase in herbicide usage over the past years does. Click here to learn more about the increased herbicide usage in the state.

Vermont advocates being green. But  I have to ask myself in going forward if that is truly a priority for our state. In learning about herbicides, I am pretty well convinced that they are not good for us or the soil we grow our food in.

As beekeepers, my husband and I truly hope individuals see the necessity to say no to herbicide usage.

Bev Lauren and her husband live and keep bees in Andover