On Tue, 31 Dec 1996, Janet Montgomery & Dan Veilleux wrote:
 
> I seriously doubt that the whole roadside will be sprayed as Roundup is a
> general vegetation killer and would open the roadside to severe erosion -- I
> suspect that the roundup will be used around guard rails, traffic signs and
> the like to ease mowing and trimming labor.
> I agree that roadsides can provide the only forage in some areas as I keep
> my bees in a heavily farmed corn/soybean cropping system.. Of greater
> concern would be 24d spraying that would remove the broadleaved plants from
> the roadsides.
> Dan Veilleux  Columbus , Ohio  USA
>
 Hi , I'm in Washington State USA and they do spray all along the
roadways. Not Just gaurd rails. The plants and grass turns brown and drys
up so we have a fire hazard beside the road. Go figure. We have to post on
our property ( No Spraying ) to keep them from spraying our roadside
property.
 I have to go with Andy on what the State will spray in the future. When
the door is open it is very hard to keep it just to roundup.When they can
buy something at 25% the price to do the same thing , they will change a
couple words in the law to save some money , so they can spend it on one
of there own favorite projects.
 
 We have had the State spraying State forest land to kill off all broad
leaf plants , so the fir trees that they planted will not get competition
to grow.We are talking of over 300 acers at a time by plane.First the
roadsides , then the forests and then a little will get into the
streams.No problem now , with the info that we have NOW. PCb's were used
all around the world up to 1979.They were safe up until the time a town in
Japan had a high level of cancer and birth defects. They were using pcb
oil to cook with.Then we did some very deep research and found out that we
had to cut it out completly. It was used in our electrical transformers
and all rubber goods to increase there life.A lot of people have given up
there lives for longer lasting rubber.The EPA has a 5,000 page book on
PCB's and how to get rid of them.
 The above should bring out a couple of questions in all of our minds.
First , how fast should we go in using a new product.How much testing is
enough?Thats a tough one.All life forms are not the same. Even like
honeybees, we can see a difference in behavior because of the genetics of
a certain bee.Some bees can tolerate more chemicals or certain chemicals
than other bees. Just like the essential oils that are being tride now to
combat the mites.Our researchers are working on how safe it is to the bees
and honey. I have been told by a researcher that some level will be toxic
to the bee. What other problems could come out of the use of the oils. I
do feel good about the oils , but that means nothing. It is the tests that
have to be done to prove out the use of the product. Roundup has had
plenty of tests by the sound of some of the posts. Even if it is safe to
the bees , we should not open up the spout and start killing some of our
wildflowers.We need a healthy Earth and it is up to us to make it
happen.You can win a battle and loose the war.This war of saving the Earth
from us has a long way to go.I hope we can all work together and bringing
up the use of roundup on this list is very positive.We do need to talk to
each other and spread out the info that we do have on chemicals.
 
 Best Regards
  Roy