I don't know what I think about the MLK end of Doan Brook - I really love the whole cultural gardens, WPA stone walls, etc... perhaps naturalizing is a good change - I'm open to that. But I want to hear more talk about the Doan Brook of the heights, because it is disgusting in Shaker. I grew up at Attleboro, by the Duck Pond, and that used to be lovely but becuse of the Shaker Country Club golf course and all the fertilized yards around here it is all covered in this bright green scum - I feel so sorry for the Blue Heron that lives there as its legs must be getting cancer... I'll take some pictures, but it seems we don't look at all the issues of Doan Brook (although there is some monitoring system there now) - what is going into the brook and flows to Lake Erie worries me more than how it comes out at the end, and if there is flooding that is from on high... from the Heights down to the lake it is fast flowing and I doubt much new toxin enters the system... the problem is on high, and they can afford to fix that. How about eco-friendly lawn and golf-course care, and cisterns for runoff, for example? Anyone know about these issues?

Disrupt IT

Good points re: the upstream pollution

The possible downstream conversion from walled-in (culverted) stream to natural banked stream with functioning wetlands will likely do much to purify the water before it runs into our great lake.

But, it would seem that with all the green talk in Shaker Heights, they could figure out a way to eliminate artificial fertilizers from the golf course.  What about the Nature Center's laudable lawn program?  Or, what about the work of Good Nature Organic lawns?  Either way, there is an application for local knowledge and local experience that could improve local quality of life for all organisms....

This is concerning... is golf the problem? George Carlin suggests that golf courses should be retrofitted to house the poor. However, thinking about this runoff issue and the idea of a golf course at the east end of Burke Lakefront is worrisome...
Martha knows a ton about the Doan Brook issues. I do hope she will respond to inform us about the issues.

I wonder if we might address the chemical lawn issue via concerned parents. They might ask their school districts about lawn care and chemicals used on school grounds and as these issues are raised, they might ask themselves the very same questions? Is what I have the lawn care company spray on my lawn good for my children? Mothers can be convincing lobbyists once informed. I am not aware of the research around this. Does anyone know where to find the links that say Quebec used to outlaw the stuff?

Guaranteed! If we had research that would speak in a cautionary tone to parents via Their children’s pediatricians, that would cut back on chemical applications. Where is the Rachel Carson of our time?

The other night Martha and I attended a book signing to meet and hear Ted Steinberg talk about his book on lawns.  http://www.gcbl.org/events/laudable-lawncare-lecture-07-27-2006

When asked about the history of grass lawns, he said that they just sort of happened as a phenomenon of the postwar boom. Dad's wanted to have a tidy place to throw the ball around with his kids. This sounds like an oversimplification to me. Maybe he covers it in his book more thoroughly, but that pat answer did not satiate my curiosity. I had lived through that and had already recognized this suburban fascination with grass.

Here, a local eco-friendly mechanic and individual citizen who researches, thinks and writes about climate change, CO2 emissions and global warming and actually does something helpful for his customers as well as his readers gives us a deeper look at the history of lawns.
http://www.gcbl.org/events/laudable-lawncare-lecture-07-27-2006
The intro of this page is a good one to pass along to your born-again friends and neighbors who obsess over their grass -- the ones who need to be informed with humor over time, not doused with an ocean of ecofundamentalism.

I asked Ted Steinberg if he had raised the issues of Scott's and Chemlawn outlawing with the elected officials in his town Shaker Heights. No he replied, I am an historian, I am writing about it. I continue to wonder, since when does being an author relieve you of your responsibility as a citizen? If you are shocked that people don’t know that they are spreading disease causing, ecosystem disrupting chemicals where their children will ingest them and where they will runoff into the brook and the lake and rearrange our environment, then shouldn’t you say something? Even if it is not to Congress?

Sam Bell (owner of the Lusty Wrench) is a citizen activist and a damn good mechanic.
http://stopurban4x4s.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_stopurban4x4s_archive.html
He even took time out of his day to testify before the EPA. (be ready to us your search function as Sam's testimony is way down there on the page). http://epa.gov/tier2/nprm/t2clvlnd.txt

Well, I thought I knew a little bit...  But you know what they say about a "little knowledge" and all that :-)

So......I “Googled”  Dogs and “lawn Chemicals” and got 27,600 hits http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Dogs+and+%22lawn+chemicals%22&btnG=Search

Interestingly enough, the second one down was from David Beach’s  EcoCity Cleveland site

http://www.ecocitycleveland.org/health/lawn_care.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Googling Dogs "liver failure" "lawn chemicals" resulted in 150 hits

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Dogs+%22liver+failure%22+%22lawn+chemicals%22&btnG=Google+Search

Including this one that I found interesting:

http://www.paw-rescue.org/PAW/PETTIPS/DogTip_WarmWeatherSafetyTips.php

.....which contained this note:

“Lawn chemical report: Evidence shows that lawn chemicals are linked to development of cancer such as lymphosarcoma in dogs. To receive a report on lawn, garden and household chemcials hazardous to dogs, other pets and children, contact the Rachel Carson Council Inc., P.O. Box 10779, Silver Spring MD 20914.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

.....the Rachel Carson Council’s site currently is at:

http://members.aol.com/rccouncil/ourpage/

...and it contained a lot of information, including:

"Our Common Ground:"
A New Year Resolution for the First Family's Scottish Terriers


According to the eminent veterinary epidemiologist, Dr. Lawrence T. Glickman (School of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University):
Scottish terriers have an 18 times greater risk of developing bladder cancer than mixed breed dogs. This risk is increased fourfold with exposure to phenoxy-type herbicides. Herbicide Exposure and the Risk of Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder in Scottish Terriers
Government statistics report that these herbicides have been some of the most frequently used lawn chemicals in our country.

Among Scottish terriers being treated for bladder cancer are the pets of a Congressman and a former Cabinet official of the Bush White House. These dogs are reported to have played on the White House lawns.

Since the White House lawns and gardens are not now organic and free of toxic-chemicals wouldn't it be wonderful to begin the New Year with this Resolution:
Our nation's White House lawns and gardens will be now and forever treated only organically, to be kept free of all chemical pesticides, for the health of our First Family's dogs and of all the children and citizens who will visit "their" house.
....and on down the page....

Snoopy, Spokesdog for Toxic-free Lawns

Two years ago Mrs. Charles Schulz agreed to license out Snoopy as a "spokesdog" against the use of toxic chemical pesticides on the lawns where pets and families spend time together. She generously donated the services of the flying ace beagle to Rachel Carson Council to accompany the statement: Snoopy only lands on toxic-free lawns! Make sure YOUR yard is chemical pesticide-free for the safety of yourself, your children, and your pets. It is a fitting legacy for Snoopy's creator, Charles Schulz who cared deeply about the well-being of children and dogs

Lastly, the link to the large Snoopy page at:  http://members.aol.com/rccouncil/ourpage/#snoopy yielded, (at a quick glance...),

What makes some chemically treated lawns
especially dangerous for pets?
Snoopy and his fellow dogs, like miners' canaries, are sensitive to some pest control products commonly used around the home and yard.
When it comes to risks posed by certain lawn care chemicals, dogs exhibit a degree of vulnerability that even responsible, caring owners may not realize. A few examples follow.
Immediate toxicity
Dogs have developed anorexia, loose stools, vomiting, ataxia and incoordination, hypersalivation, and tremors after exposure to phenoxy herbicide-treated lawns.
The Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) received approximately 100 calls during the late 1980s on adverse effects in dogs associated with the phenoxy herbicide 2,4-D (Beasley, V.R. & H. Trammel).
In addition to the signs noted above, muscle weakness and myotonia (muscle stiffness of the hind legs) have also been noted in 2,4-D poisoned dogs (Osweiler, G.D. et al).
But the majority of such poisoning events are not reported to the APCC. Rachel Carson Council continues to receive reports of ill effects in dogs after exposure to various lawn pesticides.
In humans, symptoms of 2,4-D poisoning can be coughing, burning, dizziness, temporary loss of muscle coordination, fatigue, and weakness with or without nausea (Kamrin, M.A.), as well as vomiting, and severe, or migraine headache (personal communication, Haugen, C.).
Cancer
Two canine cancers have been associated with chemical herbicides: cancer of the urinary bladder in Scottish Terriers (Glickman, L.T., et al) and canine malignant lymphoma in various breeds (Hayes, H., et al).
In people 2,4-D has been associated with non-Hodgkins lymphoma (Zahm, SH & A. Blair).

Laboratory rodents were found to have higher rates of brain cancer after exposure to high levels of 2,4-D (Aug. 31, 2000, EPA OPP Memo).

Hope this will add some fuel to the fire... 

Bill

(a "pesticide free" homeowner for the last 24 years)

Time to revisit our buried creeks--

Norm, the flash flooding we just experienced today 7/17/2009 should wake some folks up, but then it's just back to sleep, again. 

Water?  Not my problem...think again.