Herbicide at Crown Mountain

Now that I have my hefty new tax obligation for Crown Mountain Park, I’d like to speak as a steward for my new, involuntary investment.

In walking to Holy Cross Energy’s shareholders meeting and barbecue at the park on Thursday, I found myself traversing acres of dandelion plants clearly in their final death throes from a broadcast herbicide.

Not being a chemist, I don’t know how entirely safe the application of this product may or may not be for all the children, dogs, and other organisms above and below ground, but I find this to be a strange practice in such an eco-conscious community.

The dandelion is not a ”noxious” plant, and as for being “a weed,” that’s a term that does not exist in a botanist’s vocabulary except as a designation for a plant that someone doesn’t want to have around, for some arbitrary reason.

If the managing directors have a non-arbitrary reason for the murder of dandelions at Crown Mountain Park, it would be nice to hear it. Otherwise, it’s not the way I’d like to see my tax dollars misappropriated.

Chad Klinger

Basalt