MISSOULA — In the city of Missoula, eight herbicides are used to manage parks and open spaces.
Because of that, Grow Safe Missoula, a volunteer organization, is pushing the city to adopt an organic land management policy.
"The concerns are so wide-ranging that I can't touch on all of them," said Alison Reintjes, director of Grow Safe Non-Toxic Missoula.
Reintjes said that between serious health impacts and runoff from herbicide-treated parks entering the groundwater, she hopes the city will adopt an organic land management policy.
"Organic land care is a set of standards that is similar to organic agriculture, but without any sort of certification process," Reintjes said.
Reintjes said an organic land management policy largely consists of making sure the soil is healthy, largely through aeration, adding compost and overseeding.
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Marina Yoshioka, director of Missoula Parks and Recreation, said in a statement that in "our developed parks, herbicide use is minimal and tightly controlled," and "when herbicides are applied on open space, we post trailheads 24 hours in advance, use blue dye to mark treated weeds so the public can identify and avoid them, and publish detailed maps of treatment areas online and at trailhead."
The body that has the ultimate say in whether to adopt an organic land management policy is the Missoula City Council.
Sean McCoy and Kristen Jordan said they support moving away from herbicides but acknowledge that it may take time to fully implement such a policy.
"We're making that transition to not using herbicides as much as possible as quickly as we can. It's not gonna happen overnight. It's gonna take us probably years because it costs a lot of money to go organic," McCoy said.
"I think that generally, the city would love to make this move. It is a new path. We tried to follow what Boulder was doing, and it's a very different scenario," Jordan said.
Council member Betsy Craske said she would also support an organic land management policy.
Council member Mike Nugent said that before the council makes any decisions, an accurate accounting must be done of the financial impacts that could fall on the city if such a policy is adopted.
