LIFE FEATURES:Damage to hedgerows in Co Meath is being blamed on careless work carried out as part of the first national noxious weed-spraying programme, writes Rosita Boland.

ROADWORKS ARE NOT the only side-effect of the ongoing development of our national infrastructure. The disturbance caused by digging and road-widening in the last few years also caused a dispersion of seeds, including those of noxious weeds.

Ireland's most commoninvasive noxious weeds are ragwort (distinctive by its bright yellow colour), spear thistle, creeping thistle, and curled and broadleaf dock. One ragwort plant alone annually produces 150,000 seeds, which remain capable of growth for a number of years. Up to 75 per cent of the seeds can germinate, so it is capable of multiplying in staggering numbers. Ragwort is also toxic if eaten by cattle, horses, deer, goats, pigs or chickens, so clearly it can do a huge amount of damage to our eco-system.

When noxious weeds appear on private agricultural land, the owner is liable to a fine, under the 1936 Noxious Weeds Act, unless he takes action to prevent their growth and spread. When the weeds are on public space, such as verges, it is the responsibility of local authorities to control their growth.

The first national noxious weed spraying programme was established this year by the National Roads Authority (NRA). The Exchequer gave €3 million to the NRA, from which to allocate funds to local authorities, the amounts depending on the size of each county and the extent of its road network.

The NRA issued all local authorities with detailed guidelines on road-spraying. Weedkiller is, of necessity, very toxic; thus, in areas where weeds are mixed with vegetation such as wildflowers, ferns, briars and grasses, it should be applied in a controlled manner. Weedkiller can be applied in a number of ways, either by hand via a spray and a backpack, by selective spraying, or by indiscriminate spraying. One of several chemicals recommended for use by the NRA is the herbicide 2,4-D. The guidelines note that "2,4-D is a broad-spectrum herbicide and will affect a number of other plant species".

MEATH COUNTY COUNCIL received €106,955 for its spraying programme, contracting out the work to Geosynthetic Monitoring, of Threecastles, Co Kilkenny.

In early May, a few days after Geosynthetic Monitoring had carried out its spraying, Co Meath farmer James McConnell noticed that hedges and broadleaf plants on verges at his farm, which is located midway between Athboy and Navan, were wilting. On driving around nearby roads, he discovered that non-noxious foliage on those verges, including whitethorn, elderberry and dandelion, was also wilting, . McConnell reported his observations to Meath County Council.

"Where the spray hit the hedges, they're dead," McConnell insists. "Whoever was spraying obviously thought nettles were noxious weeds. Those hedgerows are very old. They eliminated lots of wildflowers too. We'll never get it back to anything like what we had before."

Over the following days and weeks, a number of bodies were subsequently contacted by McConnell and his friend John Curran, a part-time artist and designer who lives in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.

"I'm concerned about the environment in general," Curran says, while making the point that, for him, the issue is not one confined to county borders. Both McConnell and Curran are members of Kells Horticultural Society, so they asked the society's secretary, botanist Caroline Mhic Daeid, to do a survey of the damage, which she did for free.

In mid-May, a wildlife ranger from the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Co Meath visited two sites on the N51, as did Ken McKeever, an official from Meath County Council's roads and infrastructure section. As a result of these inspections, the council suspended the spraying of the remaining stretches of road in the county.

They have not been sprayed since, nor will they be this year, as the period for maximum effect has passed. Early spring, which is defined as falling between February and mid-March, is the period which the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food recommends for the spraying of ragwort on land used for grazing or conservation for hay or silage. The recommended period for spraying on public verges is less clear, but this should be done before the height of the growing season.

Geosynthetic Monitoring also received contracts for five other counties, but Damien Lennon, of the Co Kilkenny-based company, won't disclose which counties they were.

"We didn't get any complaints from any other counties," he says, by way of explaining why he won't name them.

Lennon confirms that his company was issued with the NRA guidelines, and that it worked from those guidelines.

"The thing is, a lot of articulated lorries use those roads as shortcuts, getting from one motorway to another," he says. "I think where the problem arose was when there were narrow roads with little or no verges, and when the lorries were passing, they created a wind tunnel and the spray got spread in that way. Everything in the guidelines was adhered to as far as we're concerned." Lennon also says that the company used new equipment for the job. "Air-injected nozzles that eliminate drift by up to 75 per cent. They're new to the market and target the area you're spraying."

Lennon confirms that Geosynthetic Monitoring was contacted by Meath County Council after the spraying was done and that members of the public had complained.

"There's a lot of scaremongering around that the hedgerows were going to die off," he says. He agrees that 2,4-D was used, and that it was sprayed on non-noxious weeds such as nettles and dandelions, and on briars and grass. "The spray would stunt them all right, but they'll come back again."

Lennon argues that it was "virtually impossible" to avoid spraying non-noxious growth in certain areas. "Thistles and docks and ragwort grow in clusters, and you have nettles and briars and the whole lot coming up through them. How do you target the weeds in those situations?"

THE NRA GUIDELINES suggest a number of methods of eliminating noxious weeds other than spraying, which include cutting, hand-pulling, hoeing, and spot treatment with chemicals. These methods were not used in Co Meath.

Meath was the first county of six sprayed by Geosynthetic Monitoring. Lennon confirms that "more spot spraying" was used when working in the other five counties.

"We changed the method because of the so-called hullabaloo in Meath," he says. "Because we were told it affected wildflowers and that, and so the councils wanted more spot spraying."

"Neither James, our botanist Caroline Mhic Daeid nor myself are eco-warriors or radical environmentalists," insists John Curran. "We simply want restoration and repair to the verges and hedges to be recognised as necessary and valuable."

As far as Meath County Council is concerned, it fulfilled its responsibilities by ensuring that the NRA spraying guidelines were issued to the contractor. On the question of what action it intends to take on regenerating non-noxious plants unintentionally killed during spraying, it says: "As far as we are aware, the non-noxious plants will recover."

On the question of possible enforcement, Damien Lennon says that his company adhered to the provided guidelines and he is confident that no fine will be administered. However, a spokesperson for the Department of the Environment has confirmed to The Irish Timesthat its National Parks and Wildlife Service has opened a prosecution file and investigation into spraying in Co Meath.