If Folsom Park is removed from the organic parks program Melissa Steaves will stop taking her two young daughters there to play.
“Spraying chemicals not only affects our children, it affects our soil and waterways in more ways than we can even know,” she said.
But she understands the need to compromise on organic management at parks, a practice the city is re-evaluating following a three-year trial period.
On Tuesday, the Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz proposed keeping five parks under organic management and using conventional practices at Fanto, Needham and Folsom.
The three parks that may be removed from organic maintenance are heavily used by sports teams, and the turf has not responded as well to organic care, she said.
“We have demonstrated the organic program is not successful where there is high utilization,” she said. But she does think its important for residents to have recreational choices.
Previously, the Durango City Council had been considering a proposal to take all but two parks out of the organic program.
Councilors are expected to discuss the issue Monday during budget reconciliation.
This week, Mayor Christina Rinderle told organic park supporters a majority of councilors supports organic parks, but they have to represent all of the concerns in town. This includes those people who feel turfs on certain sports fields are not healthy and pose a safety risk for players.
In 2015, the council removed Riverview Sports Complex from the organic program after hearing about safety concerns.
Supporters of organic practices also see safety as the main issue, but they are concerned about possible long-term health impacts from exposure to herbicides, especially for children.
To take parks out of the program would be a step backward for a community that passed a resolution in a support of an all-organic parks program in 2012, said Katrina Blair, an advocate with Organic Parks Durango.
The resolution states its goal is to: “Extend organic management practices to all City lands and to minimize the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides on such lands, while maintaining City facilities at a quality consistent with City standards and the expectations of the public users of such facilities.”
She asked the city to add five parks either near the Animas River or frequently used by children to organic maintenance because independent studies show harmful effects of herbicides.
For example, a Forest Service review of research into the effect of a common broad-leaf herbicide, 2,4-D, found that using recommended amounts of the chemical could “exceed the level of concern and often by a very substantial margin.”
There is also a national trend away from herbicides. In 2008, Connecticut banned all synthetic herbicides around all K-8 schools. In Chicago, 90 percent of parks are managed organically.
Blair, the author of the Wild Wisdom of Weeds, traveled to New York City last week to help its parks staff develop an organic program. The city was using Durango as a model.
She has also offered guidance to parks managers in Cleveland, Boulder, Utah, and Boulder, Colorado.
To protect Durango park visitors, the maintenance crews flag the areas sprayed with herbicide, and the city contracts with licensed professionals to apply them to ensure no one is improperly exposed to chemicals, Metz said.
“The toxicity levels (used in the parks) are so low it has not been scientifically proven that it’s harmful,” she said.
Also, keeping weeds at low levels aids those with allergies, she said.
However, spraying tends to further disrupt the land and creates a need for continuous spraying, Blair said.
The Bee Happy Lands program through Turtle Lake Refuge, which Blair founded, has also worked with Telluride and the Electra Lake Sports Club to manage weeds by removing them by hand then over-seeding, to stabilize the land, she said.
Chemical disruption is a concern for city councilors. Early soil tests show soil in Santa Rita Park, where herbicides are used, had superior micro-bacterial composition to soil to Schneider Park, which is organically managed, Metz said.
Although the soil in Schneider was good, it was too fungal, she said.
The tests were requested by the councilors to help guide their decision.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
