Tech | July 22, 2011 | 52 comments

Is New Weedkiller Wiping Out America's Trees?

source: http://theweek.com/article/index/217464/is-a-weedkiller-wiping-out-americas-trees

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coolplanet
Is a weedkiller wiping out America's trees?
Imprelis, a new herbicide, is hyped as eco-friendly by marketers — but bitter gardeners nationwide tell a different story

posted on July 21, 2011, at 1:47 PM

A new weedkiller that was recently approved by the EPA is now suspected of killing more than weeds. Large shade trees, including willows, poplars, Norway spruce, and white pines, as well as smaller shrubs and ornamental plants, are turning brown and dying after the herbicide was sprayed near them. Homeowners, golf course managers, and plant-nursery employees are in an uproar, as thousands of plants wither. Here, a brief guide:
What is this new herbicide?
It's called Imprelis, and is marketed to landscape professionals. You probably won't find it on the shelves of your local hardware store. Imprelis is one of a group of herbicides that, ironically, was developed to be safer and more environmentally friendly than older herbicides. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave the weedkiller conditional approval last year, while it continued to review its safety data. Some states, like California and New York, have not yet approved Imprelis for use.
Does it kill everything around it?
No, according to records from the EPA and DuPont, the manufacturer of Imprelis. They tested the herbicide hundreds of times on a range of plants, and found that it is safe and effective, especially on troublesome weeds like dandelions, clover, and ground ivy. Preliminary tests also showed that it caused no damage to other plants, but testimonies from homeowners and groundskeepers nationwide cast doubt on those studies.
What are users of the herbicide finding?
A Delaware couple claims that Imprelis is responsible for poisoning 10 large white pines on their property. "They look deformed," says homeowner Dwight Shamp, as quoted by DelawareOnline. "Some of them are completely brown and needles have fallen off. They look like last year's Christmas tree." Other users of the weedkiller, including condominium associations and the operators of cemeteries and athletic fields, have voiced similar complaints.
What's being done about these tree deaths?
While the EPA has fast-tracked a review of the weedkiller, a Pennsylvania homeowner and a Michigan golf course operator, who claim that Imprelis is responsible for $5 million in damage to their two properties alone, have initiated a class-action lawsuit against DuPont. The company is investigating claims of tree deaths nationwide, but it continues to insist that the herbicide is safe when used as directed. DuPont says in a statement: "We are evaluating our response to the complaint, but are confident that this purported class-action lawsuit is unfounded, and we will oppose it vigorously."
Sources: DelawareOnline, Detroit Free Press, New York Times, (2), Technorati
  1. groups:
    Community,   Tech,   Green,   Sustainable Agriculture,   2 more
  2. tags:
    Trees,  biodistress,  Herbicides,  DuPont,  1 more
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52 comments // Is New Weedkiller Wiping Out America's Trees?

  • Littlewolf
  • kvb1
    • +2
      kvb1  

    • Any weed killer that can kill a willow tree should be baned from the planet. I have cut down willows, and they continue to sprout from the stump and from the logs, especially ones that have direct contact with the ground. The EPA should fast tract the ending of this product.

    • 1 year ago
  • wynnmeg61
    • +3
      wynnmeg61  

    • The conservatives of all stripes Rep and Dem have been actively defanging the EPA so that it is no longer worth a damn. The same way they did to the FDA. The EPA did some great things in years past, I remember the days of burning lifeless rivers and air so thick you had to chew it first. I am afraid that we can expect those days to return again.

    • 1 year ago
  • Incredulous
    • +5
      Incredulous  
    • wynnmeg61:

      Had a friend working for the EPA. I remember him telling me how they always want to do more (the worker bees), but their hands are continuously tied by our lying politicians who say one thing, and do the exact opposite when it comes to funding the projects they claim to be promoting. Policy there, like everywhere else, is dictated by corporate greed.

      I want my country back!

    • 1 year ago
  • wynnmeg61
    • +2
      wynnmeg61  
    • Incredulous:

      Yes they are people who try to do the right thing and do whatever they can but they are restricted. I feelbad for them too because they can't win, not only is the right restricting them but the left call them everything but children of god

    • 1 year ago
  • ecoalex
    • +3
      ecoalex  

    • Conventional farmers stewards of the soil? WTF? before WW2 farmers sprayed kerosene on young carrots to kill grass,weeds.After WW2 the chemical war machine converted to ag chemicals and started a war on the soil,environment.It is astounding that those who say they love God's creation wage war on it.Organic/eco /sustainable farming,gardening is better than conventional strategies without the toxic risk.Nothing surprises me,as the believers poison many aspects of our lives,our food,economics,health.How unconscious is that?

    • 1 year ago
  • Jennifer_Guinn
  • bailey78
    • +5
      bailey78  

    • They are doing (Dupont) what they can to destroy the Earth as we know it. For reasons We have yet to figure out. Maybe they want to have a Air tax so they can charge us for the very Air we breath.

    • 1 year ago
  • squarethecircle
  • bailey78
  • cmc101
    • +3
      cmc101  
    • bailey78:

      shame on you for suggesting such a thing Now they have another plan they didn't thank of without paying a China man it was for free maybe they will test it on the east Indians and get back some of their money they lost with the last gassing

    • 1 year ago
  • bailey78
  • Incredulous
    • +3
      Incredulous  
    • bailey78:

      we love you just the way you are bailey...

      I hate to even imagine you in a suit and tie. It would be like aliens abducted you and sent back a corporate clone. Scary, but something tells me you have more fun ways of "bettering" yourself. ;-)

    • 1 year ago
  • bailey78
    • +2
      bailey78  
    • Incredulous:

      Suit? TIE!! are you on drugs??? I don't even own a dress shirt. Well Ok I may own a dress shirt but I have no idea where it would be. Life is to short to be a suit. I have to go play with the dogs outside now My brain hurts just thinking about putting on a suit & tie

    • 1 year ago
  • Incredulous
  • bailey78
  • cmc101
  • bailey78
  • Incredulous
  • bailey78
  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  
    • bailey78:

      they already think that...and truthfully, I don't trust what's coming out of the sky much anymore. Some time after Fukishima we were having some rain and I had one arm out the window as I was driving around in it, and ended up with red spots all over that arm...very strange.

    • 1 year ago
  • bailey78
  • percipi224
    • +4
      percipi224  

    • Why are we surprised at these tactics? My neighbor sprays every living green thing in his yard. Its like he's mental. He has had two dogs get cancer. He cut down trees; "they have bugs" wtf? I am just glad he is down stream, but even so the old sob reached over my fence and killed a beautiful thistle I had growing. Just out of meanness. I painted my garage pretty colors, I have a quote from Stephan Hessel; "To Create is to Resist, To Resist is to Create" Today i will put this in his side of the garage. His wife is fundamentalist. "The Earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein" Psalms 24:1

    • 1 year ago
  • squarethecircle
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • percipi224:

      "His wife is fundamentalist"

      Mental being the key syllable there. Isn't it amazing how those who portend to love God's creation are the ones destroying it? Don't they realize that the "they" in they that dwell therein includes all species?

    • 1 year ago
  • TrishR
    • +3
      TrishR  
    • percipi224:

      I have a neighbor like that - I see the clouds of who-knows-what billowing over & thru the fence, as the yard crew "cares" for the home-improvement-store display of a "garden" she had installed in one day.

      The ironic thing is that, so she won't have to walk the two dogs, she's created an area for her dogs to "potty" (her term) that consists of fist-sized gravel and whatever poop doesn't pick up easily with her bucket scoop she hoses into the ground, just on the other side of the fence from where we had a veg garden. And even though there isn't a single thing that could shed a leaf in the "dog potty", her leaf blower squadron blows that area on every visit.

      Oh, ironic thing #2, never see anyone hanging out in said "garden" - even with the $X amount she told me spent on the plantings & furniture.

    • 1 year ago
  • cmc101
  • cmc101
    • +1
      cmc101  
    • TrishR:

      I bet that she has to work 27/7 just to pay her husband's property tax that they opposes
      for those little heathens to go to school down the street

    • 1 year ago
  • TrishR
    • 0
      TrishR  
    • cmc101:

      Actually she doesn't work - not since the housing bubble burst & she & her husband stopped selling real estate. He had to get another job.

      This past winter, they lived in their basement because they couldn't afford to heat the whole house, and yet, as soon as the first blade of grass was visible this spring, the gardeners were back. I think she thinks as long as it *looks* like money is being spent, that's the most important thing

      (I think this not only because of the above, but also partly on her remark that a house down the street that was newly painted puke green & had the tree in the front cut in a way that left behind a 6 foot tall stump looked "great").

    • 1 year ago
  • cmc101
  • TrishR
  • totally_dilapidated
    • +7
      totally_dilapidated  

    • isn't duPont synonymous with death?

      - DuPont was the inventor of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons),
      - DuPont developed the Teflon processing aid perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA, also known as C8)
      - the University of Massachusetts Amherst ranked DuPont as the largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States.

      anyway, here is a book:
      Du Pont: Behind the Nylon Curtain
      by Gerard Zilg

      In 1974, Gerard Colby Zilg, a former congressional aide with access to large quantities of corporate information, wrote a book about the DuPonts and the imperial way they ran their corporation. The book was called DuPont: Behind the Nylon Curtain. Published by Prentice-Hall, it rapidly sold out its first 10,000 printing. It created public interest. The New York Times Book Review said it was "something of a miracle" that the 25-year-old author had written a book with such authority that was masterful. Publishers Weekly said the book would be "useful for future historians."

      In ways not clear, DuPont got a copy of the manuscript before it was published. (This writer had a similar experience. When my first book, the first edition of The Media Monopoly, was still in manuscript, Simon and Schuster got a copy of the manuscript and the publisher's General Counsel wrote to my publisher, Beacon Press, threatening to take action if Simon and Schuster did not see the manuscript before publication and remove anything that might be seen as defaming the publisher. The New York Times got word of this pre-publication threat and wrote a news story. It did wonders for book sales. But how S&S saw the manuscript beforehand remains a mystery.)

      In the 1974 DuPont case, the book was saleable enough that it was slated to become the selection of the Fortune Book Club, a subsidiary of Time,Inc. . DuPont lawyers got on the case, threatened the Fortune Book Club and Prentice-Hall, and more powerfully threatened to cancel all DuPont ads from Time. Inc. publications. Time, Inc. and Fortune-Books cancelled its plans and Prentice-Hall stopped promoting the book.

      Zilg, the author, sued Prentice-Hall and DuPont for conspiracy under the First Amendment and anti-trust collusion in restraint of trade. He never won against DuPont but he did win against Prentice-Hall ---- after four years of litigation.

      That was in 1974. Now in 2005, when Glen Evers who had worked for DuPont for 22 years as an engineer, he discovered a DuPont product with possible public health problems, he, too, like Zilg years before, discovered that major corporations do not fail to use their power to silence its critics.

      In 1974, Gerard Colby Zilg, a former congressional aide with access to large quantities of corporate information, wrote a book about the DuPonts and the imperial way they ran their corporation. The book was called DuPont: Behind the Nylon Curtain. Published by Prentice-Hall, it rapidly sold out its first 10,000 printing. It created public interest. The New York Times Book Review said it was "something of a miracle" that the 25-year-old author had written a book with such authority that was masterful. Publishers Weekly said the book would be "useful for future historians."

      In ways not clear, DuPont got a copy of the manuscript before it was published. (This writer had a similar experience. When my first book, the first edition of The Media Monopoly, was still in manuscript, Simon and Schuster got a copy of the manuscript and the publisher's General Counsel wrote to my publisher, Beacon Press, threatening to take action if Simon and Schuster did not see the manuscript before publication and remove anything that might be seen as defaming the publisher.

      The New York Times got word of this pre-publication threat and wrote a news story. It did wonders for book sales. But how S&S saw the manuscript beforehand remains a mystery.)

      In the 1974 DuPont case, the book was saleable enough that it was slated to become the selection of the Fortune Book Club, a subsidiary of Time,Inc. DuPont lawyers got on the case, threatened the Fortune Book Club and Prentice-Hall, and more powerfully threatened to cancel all DuPont ads from Time. Inc. publications. Time, Inc. and Fortune-Books cancelled its plans and Prentice-Hall stopped promoting the book.

      Zilg, the author, sued Prentice-Hall and DuPont for conspiracy under the First Amendment and anti-trust collusion in restraint of trade. He never won against DuPont but he did win against Prentice-Hall ---- after four years of litigation.

      does it matter what duPont lawyers say?
      isn't the track record death?

    • 1 year ago
  • coolplanet
  • bailey78
  • coolplanet
  • coolplanet
    • +7
      coolplanet  

    • Why must every American's yard look like a golf course?
      What is wrong with clover and violets???
      Is it worth the life of bees and trees to have a perfect chemlawn?

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • squarethecircle
  • bailey78
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
    • +2
      coolplanet  
    • squarethecircle:

      I was in a hardware store a while back and overheard an old man ask "Do you carry anything that will kill EVERYTHING?" The salesperson began showing him products. I butted in, "May I make a suggestion? Cover the undesirable plants with black plastic all summer. That works better than any chemical." But he bought the poison anyway.
      I was there looking for something that would kill poison ivy which had spread 30 feet in my yard and trees this year. When I saw all the products that would kill poison ivy (mainly RoundUp) I became so disgusted that I went home, put on some gloves and pulled 30 feet of poison ivy out by hand! The case of poison ivy that developed on my arms and legs was easily and quickly eradicated with a dose of straight Tea Tree essential oil.

    • 1 year ago
  • coolplanet
    • +3
      coolplanet  
    • bailey78:

      Maintaining a grass lawn is a lot of work watering and fertilizing. About 10 years ago I planted white and pink clover in my grass and it has taken over the yard to my neighbors horror. I try to explain that clover naturally fertilizes the soil with nitrogen, does not require watering to stay green, needs less cutting and looks beautiful even during a drought. But they just roll their eyes and continue slaving over their lawn, constantly applying Scott's Four Step poison and wasting dwindling water for that first tee look.

    • 1 year ago
  • bailey78
  • coolplanet
    • +2
      coolplanet  
    • JanforGore:

      In "A Spring Without Bees" (2008) Michael Schacker writes that, until the 1950s, clover was always included in grass seed. He doesn't name the company to blame for making people suddenly think clover is a weed but I know who it is -- Scotts.
      With clover in your lawn it doesn't require fertilizer as it fixes nitrogen into the soil. It is also a honeybee's favorite food.
      I don't know if these people are evil or just ignorant although they do seem to go hand in hand.

    • 1 year ago
  • Incredulous
    • +5
      Incredulous  
    • coolplanet:

      got lotsa clover in my lawn (and violets), and lotsa bees....and lotsa moles, so whatever the moles are feeding on are plentiful. I keep trying to coax the moles over to my neighbors yard, which is picture perfect, but damn, they just won't go.

      The mole knows...

    • 1 year ago
  • Incredulous
    • +4
      Incredulous  
    • Image
    • coolplanet:

      Oh, I bought that stuff to kill poison ivy/oak one year, and after reading all the warnings decided I'd rather deal with the rash....but didn't know straight tea tree oil works, I always keep that around, will have to try it. Some people swear by a plant we call jewel weed (Impatiens capensis), and it actually tends to grow in close proximity to the poison ivy/oak. You are supposed to pick the leaves, squish them up, and rub the mixture on your skin wherever the ivy/oak has made contact. I think it works if you use it immediately, but not so much if you wait until a rash has developed.

    • 1 year ago
  • wynnmeg61
    • +3
      wynnmeg61  
    • coolplanet:

      You are so lucky to live somewhere that you can have an actual clover lawn. My city actually has ordinances of what is suitable for lawns. I wanted to plant buffalo grass which is an endemic species to the area but that was not allowed. They want everyone to use Kentucky blue or similar specie, I live in a highland desert. Those are hardly suitable species for this soil to support and we don't exactly have alot of water to be wasting on those kinds of grass. It is not sane at all.

    • 1 year ago
  • coolplanet
    • +3
      coolplanet  
    • Incredulous:

      Isn't it amazing how Nature usually provides the antidote right next to the toxin?
      Someone should make Jewel Weed soap for organic gardeners!
      Tea Tree is awesome stuff. It even melts off skin tags in a few days when applied straight.

    • 1 year ago
  • coolplanet
    • +3
      coolplanet  
    • wynnmeg61:

      I'm almost certain that my township has an ordinance against clover. My neighbor got cited for dandilions!
      If I am cited for clover I will fight it to the supreme court.

    • 1 year ago
  • Incredulous
    • +3
      Incredulous  
    • coolplanet:

      Oh I am so amazed by the way Nature provides the antidote next to the toxin. I wrote a while ago about Japanese Knotweed, which is considered a nuisance and invasive species, but, ironically, it has been proven very effectual in the treatment of Lyme disease, an invasive disease, and definitely a nuisance.

      I did not know that about tea tree and skin tags either...very interesting stuff, isn't it?

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • artemis6
    • +1
      artemis6  
    • Incredulous:

      I got lyme a year ago , and am taking that very thing right now , or i cannot even type ..... So i personally vouch for it , and some chinese herbs and some teasle root extract . Kicks some lyme ass .

    • 1 year ago
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