On May 8, the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, on a 3-2 vote, approved a five-part plan for the eradication of French Broom, an invasive plant species, from its sensitive Olympia Well Head, a protected watershed around an old quarry off West Zayante Road in Felton.
There was a sense of urgency at the time, because the bushy plant was in full yellow bloom, and directors wanted to act quickly before the blossoms went to seed.
When plans to apply the herbicide glyphosate to the watershed were revealed in mid-April, a storm of protest had erupted at a raucous April 20 board meeting, which led to a second meeting, then the May 8 decision.
Today, July 7, the California Environmental Protection added glyphosate to its list of cancer-causing chemicals, requiring warning labels on any products containing the pesticide to state that it is known to cause cancer.
Two months after the glyphosate motion, the only part of the May 8 five-part French Broom plan that the SLV Water District has enacted is the fifth and last item, which the district’s website said is “to selectively apply glyphosate to the few mother plants in the most sensitive areas one time, and monitor.”
The district has provided no details of what the district has alternately called its “cut stump” or “cut-and-dab” actions.
Sources have told the Press Banner that “cut-stump” cutting and glyphosate use occurred last month in “high-priority” areas along the access roads that circle the southern portions of the district’s property, where wells provide drinking water for the Felton area.
A walking tour of some of those areas on June 30 showed little evidence of fresh cutting, except for one four-foot-high pile of fresh-cut broom plants piled next to one access road.
The cut broom plants, and all other visible broom plants along the roads had already gone to seed.
One section of the May 8 motion that apparently has not occurred was what the board minutes said was a directive to “embark upon an immediate hand-cutting eradication, targeting priority locations within the scope of our existing budget.”
The Press Banner had inquired on May 30 whether this “immediate” step had occurred, but was told only that ”work on the French Broom project had begun imediately.”
At the May 8 board meeting, the directors said this step specifically would not include any use of herbicides, but would represent immediate action to cut some plants, using $20-$25,000 in the 2016-17 budget, before plants went to seed.
When the district’s general manager, Brian Lee, announced the May 8 decision on May 9, he excluded any mention of the “immediate” hand-cut, non-herbicide directive. He corrected this three days later after the Press Banner reported the omission.
Last month, Lee posted online a report that still occupies a prominent position on the district’s web site, in which he again excludes any mention of the board’s May 8 directive to begin “immediate” hand-cutting of the French Broom without herbicides.
On the website, he said the district will use small amounts of non-Monsanto glyphosate in a “cut-stump” method in the watershed.
The Press Banner invited Mark Messimer, a member of the San Lorenzo Valley Watchdogs, to accompany a reporter on walking tour of the watershed on June 30. That group has been one of the most vocal in opposition to any use of herbicides, especially the carcinogenic glyphosate, in the water district.
One pile of the French Broom cuttings was observed, as was a fast-running spring-fed stream flowing out of redwoods, wild blackberries and poison oak along one of the roads, flowing towards one of the district wells, and some scattered French Broom plants.
