HERBICIDE USE WITHIN THE PARKS SYSTEM

Recommendation:

It is recommended that City Council give direction to staff.

Background:

The City has used herbicides within its Parks and Medians for many years. Both City staff and private contractors have applied them. The Los Angeles County Agricultural Department approves all materials and methods. Although the City staff currently does not apply herbicides, staff receives County sponsored training yearly. The City contractor, Van Herricks, is licensed to apply herbicides. The two herbicides that have been used are "Pendulum", a pre-emergent selective herbicide, and "Round Up", a post-emergent contact herbicide. Attached are the material safety data sheets for both products. With the exception of a previous contractor's notification procedure, there is no known problems. The contractor notifies both the City and the County Agricultural Department prior to any applications.

Analysis:

• The current contractor has established a viable application procedure throughout the Parks system with a seasonal routine.

• The current contractor has estimated an additional cost of $2,500 per month to manually remove weeds from areas such as the Greenbelt and other non-turf areas.

• Many types of smaller weeds such as Broad Leaf and Clover that attack turf areas are very difficult to weed by hand. These would be excluded from the proposal and would present an ever-expanding problem.

Alternative Considerations:

1. Maintain the current herbicide application program.

2. Eliminate the current herbicide application program which would have an increased fiscal impact for FY 98-99 - $5,000, FY 99-00 - $30,000 and FY 00-01 - 30,000. The total amount of $65,000 would come from the General Fund, 001-4202.

Additional contracts would have to be analyzed for added costs if herbicides were eliminated, i.e. Street Maintenance Contract.

3. Phase out the herbicide program to coincide with the existing contract years of 7/1/98 through 6/30/01.

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