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Agenda - 01-31-2012 - 3
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Agenda - 01-31-2012 - 3
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2/17/2012 12:02:48 PM
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BOCC
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1/31/2012
Meeting Type
Work Session
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Agenda
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3
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Minutes 01-31-2012
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- _ QRA.NGE CUUNT"Y - <br />COMMISSION FUR THE ENVIRONMENT ~, <br />MEMORAI~IDUM <br />To: Board of County Commissioners <br />Frank Clifton, County Manager <br />From: Renee Price, Chair <br />Date: December 16, 2011 <br />Re: Protection of Native Plant Habitat on Orange County Roadsides <br />Over the past few years the Commission for the Environment (CFE) has examined <br />the use of herbicides to control the growth of vegetation on roadsides and utility <br />easements, and the adverse effects of herbicides on certain roadsides that provide <br />habitat for a variety of native plants, some of which are rare in Orange County. <br />In 2009 the CFE adopted a resolution recommending that all use of herbicides to <br />manage roadsides and utility rights-of-way be discontinued in Orange County, and <br />that mowing be reinstated as the sole means of managing unwanted trees and <br />shrubs in those areas. That resolution was afollow-up to a December 2006 <br />memorandum to the Board of Commissioners in which the CFE provided thoughts <br />and recommendations on the this subject. A copy of those documents is attached. <br />After further discussion of this matter, the CFE now feels banning the use of <br />herbicides on roadsides and utility corridors is unlikely, and may not be warranted. <br />Rather than protecting all roadsides, regardless of their value as habitat for native <br />plants, we feel a more prudent approach would be to identify those areas that are <br />uniquely important and work with landowners and utility managers to conserve them. <br />The CFE will enlist help from professional biologists to organize a team of volunteers <br />to survey county roadsides at different periods of the 2012 growing season (i.e., early <br />summer, mid-summer, autumn) to identify areas that are most worthy of protection. <br />The CFE and other volunteers would contact the landowners and the utilities to <br />request their cooperation in protecting these areas from herbicide use. We would <br />ask that vegetation in those areas be controlled by mechanical means (i.e., mowing), <br />which is how all roadsides used to be maintained. Mowing continues to be used on <br />county roadsides where owners have asked that no herbicides be applied. <br />The CFE will need time (1-2 years) to carry out this effort. We will request time on an <br />upcoming Board of Commissioners agenda to present this proposal and ask the <br />Board to consider imposing ashort-term moratorium on the use of herbicides on <br />roadways until special areas are identified and protected. <br />cc: David Stancil, Rich Shaw <br />Attachments <br />Covxvu.issiov~, for the ~vi.virovi.t~er~.t <br />C/o Oravi.9B C.ouvi,ttJ. D~F~FT2 <br />F'O gor 8181, NiGlsborough, NC 2~2~8 <br />~1~~ 2-~5--2510 <br />44 <br />
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