To the Editor,
Re: Island towns battling broom, Letters, May 2.
Joanne Sales says I’ve never been out to see parks that have been taken over by Scotch broom. She’s right. I haven’t.
I’ve been to lots of parks on the Island but I’ve never seen one taken over by broom. What I have seen in some of them are unsightly piles of cut broom left as a fire hazard, as well as sharp roots cut above ground for people to trip on.
No one can object to cutting back broom or any other plant that’s a nuisance when it gets out of hand. What I do object to is cutting it simply because it’s broom, regardless of where it is and how profusely it’s growing.
I also object to the myths that Broombusters creates to justify its ‘battle.’ According to Sales, broom provides a home for rats and feral cats. That’s one I hadn’t heard before.
Broombusters ignores the contribution of broom as a nitrogen-fixing plant that enriches the soil, and never provides any evidence of the plants supposedly ‘crowded out.’
I’d rather have a splash of colour than bare ground or a pile of slash.
Gregory Roscow
Nanaimo