Sir, – With Easter upon us and the real growth of spring stretching out hereafter, I hope that we will soon be reminded about the many threats to our ecosystem, as wild foliage, home to bees and other organisms critical to our own human existence, begins to “bloom”.
With this backdrop in mind, I am exasperated, year after year, by the “lazy man’s attitude” of local organisations and public authorities responsible for keeping grass and greenery trimmed during the mowing season.
It is obvious that toxic weedkiller continues to be extensively used along grass verges, in parks and housing estates, at pillars and buttresses that support road-traffic directional and warning signs and along strips contiguous with safety crash barriers on our road network.
Primarily and most harmfully this attacks our ecosystem and savagely challenges our biodiversity but it also defeats its prime purpose by leaving ugly swathes of brown, dead and rotting scrub which will then sprout the hardiest of unsightly weeds.
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All this ruin and damage could be avoided if grass and local vegetation was allowed to thrive where appropriate, especially with safety in mind, or otherwise if a conscientious effort was made to properly clip overgrowth in an eco-friendly fashion. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny.