City of Santa Cruz reduces pesticide use | by Celia Scott

The City of Santa Cruz hires goats to clear brush around the Bay Street Reservoir, Newell Creek Dam and the Water Treatment Plant instead of using herbicides. On city-owned DeLaveaga Golf Course, workers remove invasive English Daisies (masquerading as golf balls) by hand. And around the city, park employees are using “green-flaming” with a propane torch to remove weeds from fencelines and other places. It’s all part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a program which has enabled the City to substantially reduce pesticide use.

Living lawnmovers clear brush at Newell Creek Dam.

In November 1998, the City Council approved a policy requiring all City Departments and contractors to “eliminate or reduce pesticide applications on City property to the maximum extent feasible” and to educate the public about the dangers of toxic chemicals. The resulting IPM Program is an ecological approach to pest management, where non-chemical methods are preferred, and least-toxic pesticides are used only as a last resort.

The program has evolved over the last five years under the guidance of consultants (Daar/IPM Consulting Group), the City’s new Resource Ecologist, and an IPM Technical Advisory Committee composed of citizens and city staff. In December 2002 the City received an IPM Innovator Award from the State Department of Pesticide Regulation.

This October, the IPM Program passed another milestone when the City Council adopted an IPM Guidance Manual for use by City staff, as well as a Reduced-Risk Pesticide List (RRPL). The RRPL includes a list of acceptable products that have a relatively low hazard to users, the public, and the environment. The use of more hazardous products is tightly controlled through precise limits as to use, and a strict, one-time-only, exemption process. An annual report to the City Council on all pesticide use is required.

Current estimates of direct costs to the City for implementing an IPM Program are upward of $50,000 per year, without taking into account the hard-to-measure benefits to public health and the environment. However, experience in other communities (such as San Francisco, the pioneer on IPM efforts) indicates that over the long run, costs to local government are reduced.

For more information on the City of Santa Cruz IPM Program, and to obtain copies of the IPM Guidance Manual (which includes valuable chapters on IPM use in gardening and on how to deal with aphids, gophers, pink snow mold, rats and yellow jackets), call the City Resource Ecologist and IPM Coordinator, Kirk Lenington, 420-5364 or visit the City IPM website.

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