Ponds in Peril - Again.  The way to reduce vegetation overgrowth is to protect the watershed from fertilizers and pesticides that run off into the Cove. EG
Article form Newton PATCH:

Improvements Coming to Purgatory Cove in Newton/Waltham

Purgatory Cove in Waltham and Newton to have vegetation removed.

• By Ryan Grannan-Doll February 15, 2012

If all goes according to plan, Purgatory Cove on the Waltham/Newton line will be rid of overgrown vegetation by this summer.

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation plans to start removing the vegetation at the cove this coming May, according to Waltham City Councilor Stephen Rourke. DCR officials will to monitor the cove, which connects to Auburndale Cove, over the next several years and possibly perform chemical treatments. Hopefully, the work will open the cove for boating and fishing again, Rourke said.

An informational meeting will be held in Waltham tonight at 6:30 p.m. to present the project to neighborhood residents. The meeting will be held at the Hovey House Apartments at 315 Crescent St., Waltham. Parking is available on Woerd Avenue or on the DCR boat launch.

The vegetation has overrun the cove over the past several years making it unavailable for boating and fishing, according to Rourke.

“Over the past couple decades ... it has gotten more and more vegetated to the point now where there is no open water,” Rourke told Patch. “If you leave nature to run its course, over time it would become a swamp and eventually a meadow.”

The water became stagnant over time, partly because a stream that used to flow from the former Newton landfill on Rumford Avenue was cut off from the cove, Rourke said.

If chemical treatments are proposed, Rourke said officials would need to get the proper permits from both Newton and Waltham before performing any treatments.

The work has been “a long time coming,” Rourke said. For the past several years, officials and residents have asked DCR for assistance, even submitting petitions, according to Rourke. No funding, however, was available, until now.

Last fall, Step Rep. John Lawn, D-Watertown, toured the area and agreed to push for funding for the project, which resulted in the creation of the recent plans, Rourke said.

Bare Shoulders: Herbicide Along the Highway

Highway departments across the nation put time, energy and resources into maintaining the side of the road, often preferring to keep it clean and clear of plants. But, as Living on Earth’s Ingrid Lobet reports, in Oregon, some residents don’t want chemicals used to keep the highway shoulders bare.

Week of January 20, 2012 stream/download this segment as an MP3 file

Canadian court orders review of Roundup toxicity to amphibians
http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2011/11/canadian-judge-orders-review-of-roundups-impact-on-frogs/

Don't Spray 'Em, Outsmart 'Em! by Ellie Goldberg

PEST CONTROL (The OLD way.)

1. Relies on poisons (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides).

2. Ignores the source of pest problems. (Allows conditions to get worse.)

3. Kills off beneficial plants and insects.

4. Pollutes water, soil, food and air and contaminates buildings and landscapes.

5. Harms people, pets and wildlife.

IPM (INTELLIGENCE, PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT)

1. Relies on a plan. (Don't spray 'em, outsmart 'em!)

2. Prevents and corrects the source of pest problems. (Improves conditions.)

3. Protects soil fertility and bio-diversity.

4. Protects the quality of water, soil, food and air. (Enhances the quality of buildings and landscapes.)

5. Protects the health and the safety of our families and community.

RoundUp RoundUp everywhere...  http://www.panna.org/
Like many people, I once believed in the safety of RoundUp. Back in the 1980s when I was a young graduate student in ecology, it was the “safe” herbicide of choice for clearing weeds from study plots.

Monsanto would like us to continue to believe their flagship product is safe, but the data are increasingly saying otherwise. The latest? Widespread exposure is a near certainty, since RoundUp — now linked to birth defects — shows up regularly in our water and air.zRead more »

U.S. researchers find Roundup chemical in water, air

Report: Roundup is Everywhere in Air, Water | Safelawns Daily Post and Q&A Blog

Update on OUST... Lessons learned?   Out is one of the chemicals used in the Massachusetts Rights of Way Vegetation Management Plans.  The problem with these ROW plans is that the herbicide fact sheets the companies and state agencies use are out of date.  Current research (and law suits) repeatedly  show that the chemicals are more toxic and cause more damage than previously understood.

PAN Blog  http://www.panna.org/blog

Last week's action by EPA and the pending lawsuits — with billions in potential liability — come on the heels of Dupont's losses in a lawsuit around damage caused by the company's herbicide Oust. Another longlasting, water-soluble herbicide (active ingredient: sulfometuron methyl), Oust was used by the Bureau of Land Management back in 2001 to control invasive weeds on more than 30,000 acres of public rangeland in Idaho. (See below.)

 Tree-killing herbicide pulled from market  Mon, 2011-08-22  

Dupont's new systemic herbicides, designed to keep turf grass free of troublesome weeds, seem to pose little direct danger to human health. But it turns out they do kill trees.
 
After receiving more than 7,000 reports of damaged or killed trees in states throughout the midwest, last week EPA ordered Dupont to immediately "halt the sale, use or distribution" of the company's herbicide Imprelis.

EPA approved conditional registration of Imprelis in August 2010. New York and California chose not to register the herbicide because tests showed it failed to bind with soil, "raising a red flag for potentially contaminating groundwater and damaging non-target plants," according to BioCycle Magazine.

BioCycle also reports that a national law firm has organized a class action lawsuit targeting Dupont on behalf of homeowners in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, and Minnesota whose trees have been damaged or killed. Plans are underway for additional legal actions in Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas and South Dakota.

Norway spruce and white pine appear to be particularly susceptible to harm from the longlasting herbicide.

Imprelis is one of dozens of Dupont products with the active ingredient aminocyclopyrachlor, most designed for use on turf grass or roadside brush control. All other products in this family, including the herbicides Perspective, Plainview, Streamline and Viewpoint, are still on the market.

 

Growing trouble with herbicides

Last week's action by EPA and the pending lawsuits — with billions in potential liability — come on the heels of Dupont's losses in a lawsuit around damage caused by the company's herbicide Oust. Another longlasting, water-soluble herbicide (active ingredient: sulfometuron methyl), Oust was used by the Bureau of Land Management back in 2001 to control invasive weeds on more than 30,000 acres of public rangeland in Idaho.

 

When the wind came, the herbicide was carried in dust onto more than 100 neighboring farms. Sugar beets wilted, corn was stunted and potatoes died; after years of crop failure, farmers suffered millions in losses, and some lost their land to creditors.

One of the attorneys in the case described the herbicide as "very potent," known to hurt crops in concentrations as low as parts-per-trillion.

In a 2009 trial involving just 4 of the 118 farmers who have filed suit, a jury ordered Dupont to pay $17.8 million in damages, finding the company "responsible for selling a product that was defective, unreasonably dangerous and lacking adequate warnings" according to coverage in the MagicValley Times-News.

Dupont has appealed the ruling, and the 114 other cases remain to be heard. Between dying trees and damaged crops, Dupont's herbicides seem to be keeping the company lawyers very busy.