Agenda - 01-31-2012 - 3 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- _ QRA.NGE CUUNT"Y - COMMISSION FUR THE ENVIRONMENT ~, MEMORAI~IDUM To: Board of County Commissioners Frank Clifton, County Manager From: Renee Price, Chair Date: December 16, 2011 Re: Protection of Native Plant Habitat on Orange County Roadsides Over the past few years the Commission for the Environment (CFE) has examined the use of herbicides to control the growth of vegetation on roadsides and utility easements, and the adverse effects of herbicides on certain roadsides that provide habitat for a variety of native plants, some of which are rare in Orange County. In 2009 the CFE adopted a resolution recommending that all use of herbicides to manage roadsides and utility rights-of-way be discontinued in Orange County, and that mowing be reinstated as the sole means of managing unwanted trees and shrubs in those areas. That resolution was afollow-up to a December 2006 memorandum to the Board of Commissioners in which the CFE provided thoughts and recommendations on the this subject. A copy of those documents is attached. After further discussion of this matter, the CFE now feels banning the use of herbicides on roadsides and utility corridors is unlikely, and may not be warranted. Rather than protecting all roadsides, regardless of their value as habitat for native plants, we feel a more prudent approach would be to identify those areas that are uniquely important and work with landowners and utility managers to conserve them. The CFE will enlist help from professional biologists to organize a team of volunteers to survey county roadsides at different periods of the 2012 growing season (i.e., early summer, mid-summer, autumn) to identify areas that are most worthy of protection. The CFE and other volunteers would contact the landowners and the utilities to request their cooperation in protecting these areas from herbicide use. We would ask that vegetation in those areas be controlled by mechanical means (i.e., mowing), which is how all roadsides used to be maintained. Mowing continues to be used on county roadsides where owners have asked that no herbicides be applied. The CFE will need time (1-2 years) to carry out this effort. We will request time on an upcoming Board of Commissioners agenda to present this proposal and ask the Board to consider imposing ashort-term moratorium on the use of herbicides on roadways until special areas are identified and protected. cc: David Stancil, Rich Shaw Attachments Covxvu.issiov~, for the ~vi.virovi.t~er~.t C/o Oravi.9B C.ouvi,ttJ. D~F~FT2 F'O gor 8181, NiGlsborough, NC 2~2~8 ~1~~ 2-~5--2510 44