Ranelagh residents will take weed removal into their own hands this weekend in a pilot project aimed at reducing the need for glyphosate spraying on nature strips.
The group will meet outside 7 Ranelagh Street from 9am to noon on Saturday, September 19, before walking the surrounding block and removing weeds along footpaths and verges by hand.
Greens representatives Paul Gibson and Lucas Mrosek will join local residents for the trial.
The pilot follows a meeting with Cr Gibson about how residents could work with council to maintain verges organically.
Organisers hope the project will show how neighbours can work together to maintain nature strips without herbicide spraying.
The initiative follows continuing community concern about Huon Valley Council’s use of glyphosate for roadside weed control.
Huon Valley Council trialled alternative weed-control methods in Cygnet and Franklin last year, but later deemed the trial unsuccessful because of the cost and additional labour involved.
Ranelagh residents Dan and Sarah Davies asked council about the trial’s results and the future of its no-spray arrangements.
Their recent video about glyphosate use had attracted more than 67,000 views across Facebook and Instagram, with more than 15,000 measurable interactions.
At the August 26 meeting, council said its longer-term aim was to reduce annual glyphosate use and investigate alternative methods within the existing budget.
“Glyphosate will always be cheaper if we just look at the cost of it and labour rather than the broader effects and costs of what using chemicals is doing to our planet, to our food systems and the bees,” Sarah Davies said.
Huon Valley Council Director Community and Place Lyle Ground said council had to balance service requirements and complaints about overgrown vegetation and footpaths with environmental and social impacts.
“Council is not static in our use of glyphosate. We’re constantly monitoring best practice and looking at different ways we can do things,” Mr Ground said, adding that council was investigating ways to limit its use of glyphosate, with support from its Natural Resource Management team.
Sarah and Dan Davies have recently been appointed Tasmanian state co-ordinators for Community Gardens Australia.
They are working with council on a proposed 1000-square-metre community garden in Ranelagh, expected to include three community beds and 50 individual garden plots.
The garden proposal is expected to be finalised in October.
The Davies’ describe the weed-removal project and community garden as part of a broader effort focused on community participation, food growing and environmental care.
The HVC Spray Notification Register is found at: tiny.cc/no-spray.
