Should of could of would of

Today while walking along Gorgas Run, in Fairmount Park, just off of Ridge Ave, I ran into a Park employee.

He was hanging signs on the trees and stopped to advise me that they, “Fairmount Park Commission”, where planning a water run off restoration. To start they were going to spray an Herbicide in the wooded area to kill off invasive plants. However, although this herbicide was harmless to aquatic life, it could be harmful to my dogs if they ate any plants, grass, etc.

My concerns are:

 Does this Herbicide know the difference between invasive and indigenous or is it going to kill off all the plants?   Of course it doesn’t know the difference.

And what about the mammals that live there like the mice, squirrels, ground hogs, skunks, raccoons, deer,

Wrens, sparrows and finch to name a few that eat seeds, leafs, bark and nuts will they be poisoned?

How about the creatures that eat those animals that have eaten the poisoned plants, will they to be subject?

Once not to long ago we humans where spraying DDT and nearly killed off an entire species…..

THE BALD EAGLE, which by the way paid a visit to our fair park just this year.

Don’t get me wrong I am all for preservation of our natural environment but at what cost, the cost of killing off the wildlife that makes its home along this natural habitat we call OUR PARK!

And this whole invasive vs. indigenous thing, it has been going on since I was a child that grew up along the Wissahickon valley.  For every section of woods you try to kill off the invasive plants, another section comes into season, which the wind, animals, and birds carry the seeds back to the section you just cleared. It is a never ending cycle.  My point at what cost do we keep spraying poison into our natural world?  We culled the deer that naturally eat these plants and then brought in goats to do the job of the deer!

Wake up people and see the whole picture……. Should have just let the deer take care of the invasive plants or could have kept the goats or would have thought of a different solution.

Oh for the, should of… Could of….. would of….