In the second week of February I made my second trip to the South Atlantic, this time to work for VT Communications to training a number of their site workers.
Pesticides Training on Ascension Island
September 2nd, 2010Check your pesticide store to avoid prosecution
March 22nd, 2010Farmers Guardian – March 19, 2010
THE Campaign against Accidental or Illegal Poisoning (CAIP) is urging all pesticide users to undertake regular stock checks of stores to avoid prosecution and loss of Single Farm Payments.
CAIP, which is part of an ongoing effort to curb wildlife poisoning, is reinforcing the message after recent successful prosecutions involving storage or use of pesticides carbofuran and sodium cyanide, which are no longer approved for use in the UK.
A CAIP spokesman said: “Pesticide stores need to be checked at least twice a year to make sure all products in stock are currently approved.
“Particular attention should be paid to products whose approvals are due to expire to ensure they are used in time. Once approval is revoked, it is illegal to hold such products in store and professional disposal is the only legal option.”
Storing unapproved products is illegal and enforcement officers will also be suspicious that such products may be used to illegally poison wildlife, says the campaign.
Pesticide approval status can be checked on HSE and Chemicals Regulation Directorate websites, or with pesticide suppliers. A list of licensed waste contractors can be found at www.wasterecycling.org.uk
Defra approves use of ‘jumping plant lice’ to battle Japanese knotweed
March 9th, 2010HortWeek.com 09 March 2010
The insect, which is a predator of the plant in Japan, will act as a natural form of pest control. Defra says this is the first time that a solution like this has been used to help control the spread of a non-native invasive plant in Europe. Psyllid is commonly known as ‘jumping plant lice’.
Irranca-Davies said: “Japanese Knotweed causes over £150 million worth of damage and disruption throughout the UK every year. This project is not only ground-breaking; it offers real hope that we can redress the balance. These tiny insects, which naturally prey on Japanese Knotweed, will help free local authorities and industry from the huge cost of treating and killing this devastating plant.”
Chair of Environment and Sustainability expert panel at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Ian Nicholson said:
“Japanese Knotweed is a big issue for the construction industry, costing millions of pounds each year to manage. The ICE therefore welcomes any advances in providing solutions to this invasive species, provided of course they do not produce any other negative impacts on the environment.”
Scientific research body CABI has tested in the UK on over 90 plant types, focusing on closely related native species as well as important crops and ornamental species to ensure it does not attack other plants. If the first phase is successful, the psyllid will be released at further sites where it will continue to be monitored.
CABI lead researcher Dr Dick Shaw said: “This is a great opportunity for the UK to benefit from a technique commonly used outside Europe. We have every reason to believe that this knotweed specialist can help limit the impacts of this harmful invasive weed safely and sustainably.”
Amenity Best Practice
February 19th, 2010By Richard Minton on 19th Feb 2010 – This article originally appeared in Pitchcare Magazine Issue 28 – December / January 2009 / 2010
“It is critical that all amenity industry stakeholders embrace the requirements of the directive and adapt their practices accordingly”
The recent adoption of the Sustainable Use Directive by EU Ministers will set new rules and vigorous standards for the sustainable use of pesticides, placing a duty of care on all users to ensure safety and ‘Best Practice’ at all times.
National Action Plans, with measurable targets, indicators and timetables to reduce the risks and impacts associated with pesticide use, are being introduced. It is critical that all amenity industry stakeholders embrace the requirements of the directive and adapt their practices accordingly to safeguard the enormous benefits of amenity pesticide use in areas such as sports and recreation, and to protect our transport and utilities infrastructure.
The new directive covers a number of key areas:
• A requirement to set-up training systems for distributors, advisors and professional users of pesticides and certification systems
• Measures to protect the aquatic environment and drinking water, public spaces and special conservation areas
• A requirement to ensure greater promotion and an approach of integrated vegetation management
• Regular inspection of pesticide application equipment
• Measures to ensure preference is given to the least hazardous products, and to promote the most efficient application techniques
In addition, The Water Framework Directive came into force on 22 December 2000, and was put into UK law in 2003. Countries must aim to reach good chemical and ecological status in inland and coastal waters by 2015. Good status means good ecology and good chemistry.
The Water Framework Directive is designed to:
• enhance the status and prevent further deterioration of aquatic ecosystems and associated wetlands, which depend on the aquatic ecosystems
• promote the sustainable use of water
• reduce pollution of water, especially by ‘priority hazardous’ substances such as pesticides
• ensure progressive reduction of groundwater pollution
It is important to keep amenity pesticides out of ground and surface waters in order to:
• prevent ecological harm
• prevent the contamination of drinking water sources
• to avoid failure of legislative standards
• to avoid further regulatory and legislative restrictions
The Environment Agency needs the amenity sector to adhere to Best Practice guidelines in order to ensure compliance with the Water Framework Directive targets.
Expert groundsmen contribute to pesticide guide
December 23rd, 2009Horticulture Week 18 December 2009
Wimbledon head groundsman Eddie Seaward and St Andrews Links greenkeeping director Gordon Moir have contributed to a practical guide for amenity pesticide users.
Amenity – Best Practice: Using Pesticides in the Community, has been launched by the Crop Protection Association (CPA).
The guide is aimed at local authorities, utility companies, amenity managers and groundsmen. The 12-page booklet highlights the key role pesticides play in maintaining the quality of parks, golf-courses and sports pitches and ensuring the safety of railways and roads. It also provides information on pesticide safety and legislation and guidance on best practice.
For more information see: http://www.hortweek.com/news/bulletin/TurfBulletin/article/974118/?DCMP=EMC-TurfcareNews
Greenkeepers fear potential withdrawal of carbendazim will damage golf industry
December 4th, 2009by Jack Sidders Horticulture Week 04 December 2009
The withdrawal of carbendazim is the biggest challenge facing the golf industry, attendees at a technology and sustainability seminar heard last week.
Greenkeepers raised their concerns at Sheriff Amenity’s True Solutions Roadshow, where fine-turf maintenance companies presented their latest products.
Industry experts have warned the withdrawal of carbendazim, the use of which is currently under review, could cripple some golf courses because there is no alternative.
It is used by greenkeepers to suppress casting worms, which otherwise disrupt the surface of fine turf, leaving piles of earth.
British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association national chairman Peter Todd argued that without carbendazim, many golf courses would be in crisis. “On alkali soils, particularly, you will get quite devastating effects,” he forecast. “It will make the game unplayable on some courses.”
Applying large quantities of sand to the topsoil can help deter worms from the surface, Todd added. But the cost of applying sand to the fairways and greens of an 18-hole golf course could be too much of a barrier to some clubs.
“The courses that have big budgets might be able to afford £80,000 to £100,000 a year for sand, but that isn’t going to happen at your average 18-hole course,” he said.
He warned that the environmental impact of the extra sand extraction and transportation, along with the need to use more weedkiller should carbendazim be withdrawn, would cancel out any benefit of banning the chemical.
BALI technical director Neil Huck said: “We have been arguing that the loss of internationally valued playing surfaces through the withdrawal of chemicals is going to be severely damaging to our famous golf courses, but no-one seems to listen.”
This problem has been an issue for nearly a decade, Huck added, but a recent change to the criteria against which chemicals are reviewed has heightened the risk that carbendazim will go.
The Chemicals Regulation Directorate, the body in charge of assessing carbendazim, is now judging it against the new criteria of environmental and human risk, which include how harmful it is to worms and bees.
Though there is no consensus on what decision will be reached or when, most are predicting that it will eventually be banned.
Sheriff Amenity sales manager Neil Pullen said: “I don’t know whether it will go in six months or five years, but it will go in the end.”
Garden professionals left to face impact of pesticide law
December 1st, 2009
Horticulture Week by Jack Sidders – 27 November 2009
Professional gardeners are being hit by pesticide laws designed to tackle other land-based sectors, a seminar has heard.
The Professional Gardeners’ Guild (PGG) Historic Houses Under Threat seminar was held at the historic houses, buildings, parks and gardens event in conjunction with the Historic Houses Association. Delegates discussed the likely impacts of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive 2009 on historic parks and gardens.
Though the impact of the sustainable use directive has been widely discussed by councils and contractors, its impact on historic parks and gardens has been largely overlooked because they use relatively small amounts of chemicals.
PGG chairman John Humphris voiced the feelings of many of the head gardeners listening to the presentation.
“We have had the short straw by being classified in with the other land-based industries,” he claimed. “It seems totally unfair to me that we are suffering because of them. But there is nothing we can do about that. There will come a time when we will have to manage without chemicals and do things differently. We have to tread a middle road to appease the public and manage without the resources we have traditionally had.”
BALI technical director Neil Huck warned the audience that they must take the legislation seriously because failure to comply fully could lead to more stringent measures in future.
“We need to give priority to non-chemical methods and the directive says we must have this in place by 2014,” he pointed out. “If we don’t get our acts together as a whole land-based industry then it will come back very, very strongly. It is an easy win for the environmental lobby.”
The PGG delegates were most concerned by Huck’s prediction that glyphosate could fall foul of the Water Framework Directive.
He said environmental quality standards, which set limits on the concentrations of specific substances in water, have not tested for glyphosate in the past.
France has put a two-year ban on the chemical after finding high levels in its water supply. Huck warned that this could be an indication of things to come. The use of glyphosate has skyrocketed following the withdrawal of other chemicals.
Huck acknowledged Humphris. “I agree that there have been some appalling practices in grounds maintenance and that is why we need proper training for operators to get them thinking environmentally,” he explained.
Habitat loss and disease are bees’ bane, not pesticides – Loss of habitat and diseases are the key causes of honey bee deaths in the UK, the British Crop Production Council congress has been told.
November 16th, 2009Mike Abram Farmers Weekly
Thursday 12 November 2009 04:23
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/11/12/118744/Habitat-loss-and-disease-are-bees39-bane-not-pesticides.htm
Francis Ratnieks, the only professor of apiculture in the country, claimed that popular issues picked up in the media, such as pesticides and climate change, were distractions. The Sussex University lecturer said, “My focus is on diseases and flowers. It is easy for the key issues to be submerged under the popular ones put forward by NGOs.” There was no scientific evidence that correct use of pesticides had contributed to the decline in honeybee numbers, he said. “They are not a significant problem in the UK.”
Habitat destruction and loss of forage resources were an under-rated factor in honeybee survival, David Aston from the British Beekeepers’ Association agreed. “A colony needs around 30-50kg of pollen to survive,” he pointed out.
“Where have all the flowers gone?” asked Prof Ratnieks. “A healthy colony needs something to eat. Beekeepers can’t plant crops for bee food.” The loss of heather moors and fewer clover leys had been partially offset by more oilseed rape in the rotation, but generally there were fewer flowers in the countryside, he said.
His department at Sussex University was hoping to raise £2m to research honeybee health. So far, donations worth £0.5m had allowed two of the four projects to begin, he said. Project one was investigating breeding disease-resistant, hygienic honeybees, while project two was decoding honeybee “waggle dances” to pinpoint where bees were foraging during a year.
European directive and regulation trigger pioneering study of amenity weed control
November 13th, 2009by Magda Ibrahim Horticulture Week 13 November 2009
Alternative methods of amenity weed control are to be probed by East Malling Research (EMR) as part of a pioneering study in Kent.
The Chemicals Regulation Directorate is funding the research into the use of herbicides compared to thermal, mechanical and combined methods for controlling weeds.
EMR is working with Kent Highway Services, the University of Hertfordshire and the Environment Agency on the project. It will employ trained contractors to carry out weed control.
The study will test three different management types – integrated, non-chemical and current practice – across Thanet neighbourhoods.
Kent County Council is now tendering for contractors to carry out the work as part of its extensive weed-killing contract. The deadline to apply for the work is 17 November.
EMR business development manager Neil Hipps explained that it was important to build up a body of evidence in the light of the EU Sustainable Use Directive and Regulation 91/414. Studies have been carried out in the Netherlands into integrated weed control as well as the public perception of the acceptable level of weeds.
Hipps shared the European findings on integrated methods, which he said cost no more in some cases, with delegates at the Amenity Forum conference in Nottingham on 4 November.
He noted that the detailed specification for weed control in Thanet is now being developed.
“This work will be done by real contractors in a real world situation,” explained Hipps. “We will work with the contractors chosen as well as local people to find out what is acceptable to the public.”
Work will also be carried out on the amount of herbicide lost from surfaces. “Clearly a factor will be the economics,” added Hipps.
The approach follows the SWEEP concept developed in the Netherlands by Wageningen University. This approach aims to reduce herbicide run-off from pavements by using integrated control.
Northern Amenity Forum founding member Mark Dempsey said he would be keen to see the results but feared that they may not be relevant to local authorities that are based further north.
“Kent and Holland are 300km south of us and I suspect that their results will be a bit nullified because they don’t have as much rainfall, which increases weed growth and affects run-off,” he explained.