A future without pesticides? It can happen

Fourth municipality in Greater Victoria bans pesticide use since 2008

Derek Spalding, Times Colonist

Magda Opalski kneels on her vibrant-green front lawn in the Uplands neighbourhood of Oak Bay. She speaks thoughtfully about the hours she spends in her garden as she rakes her gloved fingers through a half-empty bag of top soil.

For two years, she and her husband, Stefan, have used eco-friendly pesticides to manage pesky weeds in order to comply with an Oak Bay bylaw that banned cosmetic use of pesticides last year.

The community became the fourth municipality In Greater Victoria do so since 2008, along with Victoria, Esquimalt and Saanich. Opalski and her husband have tried to adjust, but she says it’s a lot more work.

Eco-friendly compounds simply don’t do the job like Roundup, a product the couple has used for decades, she says.

“When the [Oak Bay] ban came, we went along with this new approach, but we were quite disappointed by the effectiveness of those other recommended products,” said Opalski. “The weeds keep coming back and the weeding of the beds takes a considerable amount of time.”

To some people, the bans seem largely symbolic, considering only one ticket has been issued so far in the entire region, to a Victoria resident. Others say the bans are merely a move to appease the large number of homeowners who have already eliminated chemicals from their lawns and gardens. And some landscapers worry that lax enforcement and lack of a region-wide ban means there is no level playing field for businesses, since using chemicals keeps labour costs down.

Municipalities in Greater Victoria introduced their bans gradually, giving residents a one-year grace period as they rolled out education programs for alternative gardening methods.

The four municipalities with pesticide bans receive hundreds of calls from residents wanting to know what they can or cannot use, but relatively few complaints about violations.

Oak Bay has not received a single complaint since the ban was imposed a year ago. Saanich has had nine complaints since 2010, none of which resulted in fines. Victoria is the only community to hand out a ticket — a resident was fined $1,000 for applying a banned pesticide without a licence.

Victoria bylaw officers also handed out one warning — the most common approach in municipalities as they try to educate residents, rather than penalize them.

Adriane Pollard, manager of environmental services for the District of Saanich, said the municipality doesn’t receive many complaints. “The majority of calls we get are people wanting to know how to best comply with the bylaw, asking about how they can keep their weeds under control without pesticides.”

Ensuring everyone complies with the bylaws is difficult, say municipal enforcement officers.

“We operate on a complaint-based system,” said Mark Hayden, manager of bylaw and licences with the City of Victoria. “We don’t proactively patrol the streets looking for people using pesticides. We rely on complaints from the public.”

Typically, when the municipality receives a complaint, an enforcement officer pays the subject a visit and explains the pesticide ban.

Kelly Chashai, owner of Down to Earth Gardens and Nursery, says enforcement at the municipal level is not enough. She hopes the province bans the sale of pesticides altogether, as several other provinces have done, including Ontario. The B.C. government set up a Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides last year and its members are expected to submit their recommendations this month.

“Banning the use of pesticides is one thing, but if people are still allowed to sell them, then it sends a mixed message,” she said.

Victoria city staff also try to lead by example, using two environmentally sensitive products to adhere to the bylaw.

Topgun “looks like soap,” said Bernard Hopcraft, the city’s horticulture supervisor. He and his crews also use Ecoclear, a mixture of acetic and citric acids that are the components of vinegar and lemon juice. The product is sprayed onto the weed directly and will only kill what it touches.

It “smells like fish and chips,” said Hopcraft. “At one time, we relied on herbicides like Roundup. It’s not a particularly dangerous pesticide, but it’s one that we’re not allowed to use.”

Planning a garden properly can help prevent weed problems before they start, said Michelle Gorman, integrated pest management co-ordinator for the City of Victoria. Tips include using healthy soil that is fertilized with organic compost; strategically placing plants in dry and sunny areas, rather than in wet and shady areas; and using raised flower beds to avoid clay, which makes growing a challenge.

Gorman’s staff regularly hold workshops to teach people a range of techniques to reduce weeds, including pruning, watering and mulching.

Hopcraft and his crew select drought tolerant plants, which reduces the need for watering. That’s important, because the overall workload has increased, since they can no longer use pesticides to get rid of pesky weeds. Now they have to ensure plants are strong and healthy to help fight off weeds.

“We realize this is the way things are done now and we have to adapt to gardening in a world where we can’t use the pesticides that we’ve come to depend on,” Hopcraft said.

Eco-friendly landscapers say that extra work puts them at a disadvantage next to competitors who can offer lower prices because they still use chemicals, especially without an outright ban throughout the region.

“Guys who aren’t organic usually win, if it’s all about the dollars,” said Chashai. “It would be nice to have everyone playing the same game. [A provincial ban] would even out the playing field.”

Despite the municipal bans, Chashai still sees other landscapers still using pesticides, which allows them to keep costs down and get more contracts, because organic methods take longer and cost more.

Scott Jackson, who owns Scott’s Gardening and Landscaping, is also frustrated by the rules in different municipalities, although he’d prefer to be able to use pesticides throughout the region.

His employees are well trained in chemical pesticide use, but when they do jobs in any of the four communities that banned them, they have to pull weeds rather than blast them with chemicals.

“It’s a freaking disaster,” said Jackson. “There [are] no chemicals, nothing that you can use. I have [trained] sprayers, but they still have no idea what they’re allowed to do or what we can use.”

Jackson says he also sees many homeowners still using products like Roundup, which is frustrating because he adheres to the bylaws, which means the properties don’t look as immaculate as they had when he was using chemical pesticides.

“It’s really difficult for us because it makes us look bad. It looks like we can’t take care of the property,” he said.

Switching to eco-friendly products, such as Topgun — a water-based formula made from naturally occurring fatty acids — has worked for some, but people like Opalski say they don’t do the job as well as a traditional product like Roundup.

Topgun is applied much the same way as traditional pesticides like Roundup.

Ready-to-use mixtures are sprayed onto the weed and reapplied every few days, if needed, until the weed has shrivelled up and died. The younger the root, the more effective Topgun is at killing the weed.

Opalski, who spends several hours a day working on her park-like half-hectare property, which stretches from Upper Terrace Road in the front to Midland Road in the back, abides by Oak Bay’s bylaw, but would much rather return to her favourite product, which is getting more difficult to find.

Gardening retail giant Rona stopped selling synthetic pesticides for cosmetic use several years ago and replaced them with greener alternatives. Staff at an Esquimalt Rona say eco-friendly products are popular among homeowners who have had to find new ways to get rid of pests.

Owners of Down to Earth Gardens and Nursery stopped selling Roundup at their nursery, but people still want it, said Chashai.

“We get asked for Roundup a lot,” she said. “It’s going to become like a black market sort of thing. I had one guy in line at the store who said to another customer: ‘If you want [Roundup], bring a container over.’ He had some in his garage he was willing to share.”

Not everyone feels the need to use pesticides when grooming their lawns. Gary Lau took advantage of a recent sunny afternoon to mow the lawn around his home on Beach Drive near Willows Beach.

He doesn’t use pesticides and neither do many of the young families who have moved into the neighbourhood in recent years, Lau explained.

“With these younger families moving in, they’re not so focused on having immaculate, perfect lawns,” said Lau, who yanks out dandelions with a device called Grandpa’s Weeder.

Lau simply holds the metal head over the weed, steps on the footpad and tilts the long wooden handle and the dandelion comes right out.

“I don’t see the need for pesticides,” he said. “Pulling out a few dandelions the hard way isn’t all that bad.”

PROVINCIAL BANS

Quebec introduced its Pesticide Management Code in 2003, banning 20 active ingredients and about 210 lawn-care products.

Ontario’s government in 2009 banned the sale of pesticides under its Toxics Reduction Strategy, restricting more than 250 products.

Alberta banned the sale of pesticide-fertilizer mixtures in 2010, but still permits the use of pesticides alone.

New Brunswick banned the sale of concentrated domestic lawn care products, pesticide fertilizer mixtures and all 2,4-D products used for lawns in 2009.

Prince Edward Island in 2010 introduced similar legislation that was passed in New Brunswick the year before.

Nova Scotia prohibited the sale of non-esential pesticides on lawns in 2011 and on ornamental plants in 2012.

Newfoundland and Labrador banned the sale of five active ingredients in popular pesticides used for lawn care, including carbaryl and 2,4-D.

CAPITAL BANS

Four municipalities in Greater Victoria have banned pesticides for cosmetic use:

Victoria (2008), Esquimalt (2008), Saanich (2010) and Oak Bay (2011).

For the most part, the bylaw documents read like a carbon copy of each other. All indicate that pesticides contribute to “cumulative chemical load absorbed by the natural environment” and “cannot be confined to a single location,” moving through “air, land and water.”

Each community cites the precautionary principle as its justification for preventing environmental damage even though “cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.” Penalties range from warnings for first-time offences to maximum fines up to $10,000.