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The Citizen, 1987-01-21, Page 5Conservationist sees threat in weeds in bird seed BY KEITH ROULSTON In the cold of January many people throughout North America and here in Huron County are taking pity on the local bird population these days and putting out bird feed but while they’re helping the birds, Norman Alexan­ der, well-known Londesboro con­ servationist, is worried they may be creating problems for them­ selves and their neighbours come next summer. Oneof the latest concerns of Mr. Alexander, who has previously fought to create new awareness of the cost of soil erosion, is that people feeding birds may unwitt­ ingly be sowing future problems for farmers in the form of weed seeds. That’s because there is a loophole that leaves bird seed virtually unregulated. It falls neither under the regulations of the Seeds Actor the regulations controlling livestock feeds. While much of the bird seed sold in stores may be clean of weed seeds, there is nothing to stop people from packaging weed seeds for sale as bird feed. While many bird feed suppliers grow their own crops, selling bird feed has also become a profitable way for some elevator companies to sell cracked grains and, Mr. Alexander says, he has even heard of screenings from bean elevators being sold as bird feed. A huge amount of those screenings would be weed seeds, particularly rag­ weed, he said. The seeds can be carried by the feeding birds to spread a plague of weeds to neighbouring properties. Mr. Alexander also worries about the possible importation of new weed varieties through bird seeds. Imports of seed grains are strictly controlled to make sure they are clean of foreign weeds, he points out, but there aren’t similar controls on seed to be used for bird feed. Whole carloads of millett seed are imported from North Dakota unsampled by customs officials, Mr. Alexander says. Acustoms official told him that the staff had enough trouble testing the regular flow of seed grains let alone getting involved in bird feed. Besides, it didn’t really fall under the normal terms of imported seed. It might be easy to dismiss Mr. Alexander’s worries as a tempest in a teapot. After all, even people who feed the birds use only a little bird seed a year. But the accumul­ ated totals of bird seed sold in any communitycanbestaggering. One small store he heard of, Mr. Alexander explains, sold tons of bird seed a year. Multiply that by the thousands of stores across the province that sell bird seed and you have the potential, if weed seeds are slipped into the feed, of major headaches for Ontario farmers. The issue illustrates the twin concerns Mr. Alexander has shown over his retirement years of looking after the welfare of Ontario farmers and at the same time worrying about the environment. The cost of chemical herbicides to control weeds, for instance, is one of the major input costs of modern farmers. And the more chemicals farmers use, the more danger there is to the environment with the runoff of farm fields finding itself into waterways. Just as he did when he fought to show the enormous cost of erosion at a time when few others seemed worried about it, Mr. Alexander is bucking a long-established trend today that sees weeds as some thing to be controlled through herbicides rather than through eradication. He recalls going to a touratthe University of Guelph yearsagoand hearing one of the speakers say “We have conquered nature.’’ The speaker said that through chemical fertilizers and chemical herbicides and pesti­ cides, man could shape nature to his liking. But things are changing, Mr. Alexander says and agricultural leaders are now starting to think about sustainable agriculture. Per­ haps his own worries about weeds are just in time to catch the new wave of thinking. Since he sold his seed cleaning plant in Londesboro several years ago Mr. Alexander has been a tireless worker for conservation. He has travelled around the continent, sometimes in his own airplane, attending conferences, talking with people and learning more. He attended the “Fate of the Earth’’ conference in Ottawa, for instance, and learned just how universal the problem of weeds is. A Peruvian delegate for instance, explained that in his country there is an 18-yearcrop rotation program in which one of the years is used to leave the land vacant, cut all the weeds that grow, dry them and burn them to get rid of the seed. Battling weeds is a never-ending struggle which is why the concern is so strong to try to eradicate any possible sources of weed seeds. R. H. Brownofthe Ridgetown College of Agricultural Technology points out that some weed seeds remain dormant for up to 40 years waiting for the right conditions to germi­ nate. “The old adage ‘One year’s seeding, seven year’s weeding’ is still appropriate today. Mr. Brown said in an article on the cost of weeds. “Studies indicate that only about four to seven per cent of the previous year’s viable weed seeds will germinate and emerge the following year.’’ The rest emerge in later years. In addition, there is that problem of how productive weeds are. One of the most troublesome weeds for farmers these days is velvet leaf. A seed from velvet leaf can be dormant for up to 40 years, Mr. Alexander says. Farmers try to keep a close watch on the plant but if one plant escapes their watch and reproduces, it can produce 500 to I, 000 seeds. There are other problems that aren’t helping the control of weeds, he says. In the days of threshing machines there was a law that said a threshing machine had to be cleaned out before going from one farm to another to prevent the spread of weed seeds. In the days of combines, however, Mr. Alexander says, that law hasn’t been enforced and it should be, he says. Even in the days before wide­ spread use of herbicides there were some farmers who had property that was virtually weed- free, Mr. Alexander says. He used to see that seed come into his plant. Those farmers made sure any seed coming onto their farm was weed-seed free. Today some farmers are also finding alternatives to heavy chemical herbicide dependency. But even people who have switch­ ed to organic farming have told him no one should ever try to switch over cold-turkey from use of chemicals to organic methods. If they do, they’ll find they have an explosion of weeds. Anyone want­ ing to do it should try a small plot at first, experiment and learn how to control the weeds on that area. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1987. PAGE 5. Norman Alexander's interest in conservation and food-production has made him an avid writer as he researches problems around the world. then gradually move the program to the whole farm. As an avid reader and a student of history Mr. Alexander is not surprised to see the wheel turn and see things of the past come back in style. Today’s heavy dependence on corn, for instance, is an echo of the events of more than a century ago and when there was too much monoculture of wheat in the mid -1800’s. To get a better crop rotation, forage crops were intro­ duced which led to more beef and dairy cattle. Dairy cattle lead in the introduction of cheese factories to use the extra milk and by the early 1900’s there were 1,000-1.200 cheese factories in Ontario. There is a cycle in Mr. Alexan­ der’s own life. He can remember skipping school in Hensail to go see ‘ ‘The Seed Train' ’, a train sponsor­ ed by the Extension Services Branch of the Ontario Agricultural College that toured Ontario with a display that included a small seed cleaner. The machine fascinated him. Years later when he had moved to the Londesboro area he saw that there was no seed cleaning plant closer than Exeter and none to the north either so he started a plant that became his main occupation until he retired. Since then he has kept just as busy with his interest in conservation. "I've never enjoyed life better than now with the things I’m doing." he says. Letters to the editor Writer says editorial 'blatant teacher-bashing' THE EDITOR, Your “Bigness Costs’’ editorial of the past week was illogical, confusing and totally unacceptable to me - a citizen of this rural community and for the interim, a subscriber to The Citizen, thus, I write. If your intent was to criticize Canada Postfor its inefficiency because of its large scale opera­ tional units and/or the fact it is people with many different organ­ ized labour groups ... so be it. It does seem though that out of necessity, it is/was and always will be a big enterprise. However, you devoted almost the entire editorial in condemna­ tion of county school boards in general and the Huron County Board of Education in particular. To decry the fact the efficiency of larger units as was touted in educational circles in the 60’s is illusory because of high costs determined by union strengths is absurd. To condemn all employees of the school board because they have been successful, to a degree, in obtaining a fair and decent wage to date for their labours is equally absurd. It smacks of a dog-in-a- manger attitude by those who are not employees of the board. What was the actual target of your editorial? I believe it was blatant teacher­ bashing! To state that the largest percentage of the board’s costs go to salaries and wages is true - and true too it would be that teachers make up the largest group in this expenditure... along with some administrators, custodians, secre­ taries and bus drivers. That’s the way it should be of course! Education Is a people business and an essential social service in our time. The end objective is not to produce a uniform, marketable, cost determined package of some­ thing. At a cost, our children deserve the best, educationally. To claim that these costs are rising more than the cost of living maybe true, if actually so; but, one can easily name a host of goods, services and products outside of education that surely are doing just that, unfortunately a sign of our times. I refuse to have some self-ap­ pointed authority on all subjects tell me as an elementary school teacher of some 32 years experi­ ence (and due to retire in a few years, if I should last...) that my gross salary - which indeed does exceed $40,000 per annum, finally - is undeserved. I find, especially with the challenge of having to teach today’s adolescents, the job increasingly difficult to do each year. Just maybe there’s a rela­ tionship between a high standard of living and the products - socially speaking - of society today... the nature of the teaching job and its commensurate pay and/or costs. 1 still have my first teacher’s contract for $2,600 (Ontario - 1955) and after many, many years of using those famous months of July and August to do under Grad/Post graduate and continuing studies, I have stopped formal study ... though I’m learning still - there's no official recognition of that. For many, many years 1 had to supplement a pittance of a salary (compared to many other skilled/ unskilled trade and service occupa­ tions) by working part time. Many a Friday evening and a Saturday were spent in Brewers' Retail stores ... away from family ... and working, 1 assure you out of need not greed. Indeed, some summers were totally used working for my Help save the post office THE EDITOR, Once again the rural communi­ ties are being lashed out at. Our Government along with Canada Post president Don Landers is attempting to close or privatize 90 per cent of C.P.A.A. Offices of which ours is one. This would result in 11,000 jobs lost across Canada in the Rural areas. We feel that privatization or closures would be a further hardship and result in employer - a school board - doing maintenance work for minimum wage. Yes, 1 am paid well now for my qualifications and experience - Why not? For the record, 1 do not teach in this county, but. after almost a decade of living here, 1 believe my opinion has some validity. 1 say to you then, thatthere is, in many instances, less than first quality Continued on page 23 deterioration oi mail service. We need your help in this matter and if all of you receiving mail through the Blyth Post Office would contact your Federal Mem­ ber of Parliament (no postage required) we should be able to stop them from closing this Office. Remember what an impact the average citizen had when the government decided to close the hospital in Clinton.