The Tennessee Valley Authority seems to think so, too.
Tennessee enviro-activist Mary Priestly was horrified to find brown patches surrounding Tennessee Valley Authority power towers. The TVA had sprayed herbicide from helicopters in the power line right-of-way.
As reported by the Chattanooga Times Free Press,
In Priestly’s eyes, the Cumberland rosinweed and neighboring rare plant, the eared goldenrod, are people, too. Or at least they should be thought of in something of the same way.
“We have decided as a society that we will take care of the weakest ones. The ones that can’t take care of themselves,” Priestly said.
This rational apparently struck the TVA. According to the Times Free Press:
TVA has apologized.
“TVA sincerely regrets the event that resulted in the aerial spraying of herbicide … within the Hawkins Cove State Natural Area during the week of July 11,”…
Behold the Cumberland rosinweed in all its glory:
I’ll take the counterpoint and posit this: Wasteful destruction is a bad thing.
It doesn’t really matter what it is, whether an endangered plant, common grass, Kudzu, or even those horrid spike-weeds. Needless destruction of life or habitat is wasteful and shameful, and it should be avoided if reasonably possible. Aerial spraying of herbicide to destroy plant-life can be avoided by periodic brush clearing. This is needless overkill and should be frowned upon.
My God, somebody PLEASE kill all the kudzu taking over my great state of Tennessee – and the Golden Rod with it.
Now that’s a correlation that I think even the Junk Man would agree with. Way good.
One more instance of proof that closing the state institutions for the mentally incompetent was a B-I-I-I-I-G mistake.
[ corollary: ]
Mama warned you those drugs weren’t good for you.
I blame the whole thing on the battery industry. Back when we had carbon based batteries we did not even entertain this sort of silliness. Along came NiCads and things started getting a little goofy. Nowadays we have mostly lithium based batteries and the whole world seems to have gone stark staring mad. I think the cadmium levels in drinking water from tossed out batteries started the mental degradation and then the diversion of lithium from medical usage to batteries has left so many, many poor souls without the ability to treat their problems. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Shame on you battery companies.
It is possible to treat large areas with herbicides and avoid sensitive plants like this. Power lines must be kept free of vegetation. Not spraying would result in heavy vegetation. usually that invoves invasive species that take over/ A large vine that can grow several feet in a day comes to mind. A plant that outcompetes a native one and smothers it maks it just as dead as if that plant had been sprayed with an herbicide.
I guess if she smokes it long enough, it begins to seem like an old friend, one that you are dependent on.