Byline: The Register-Guard

Lane County has a policy of spraying herbicides to clear weeds from roadsides only as a last resort. In practice, herbicides have not been used at all for five years, and on Wednesday the Board of Commissioners, acting as the Board of Health, voted unanimously

The decision to never use herbicides under any circumstances comes in large part because many people don't trust county crews to use chemicals with restraint. Given permission to spray as a last resort, they fear, the Public Works Department would apply herbicides near waterways, next to the county's 878 registered "no spray" areas and just about anywhere a weed dared poke its head into sunlight. Roadside vegetation managers are widely believed to consider herbicides as their weapons of choice, and to see the chemicals as less expensive, more effective and easier than clearing brush mechanically or by hand - so it's assumed that the supposed last resort would too often appear at the top of the list.

Those suspicions may have been well-founded at one time, but decades of protest and education have had their effect. The Public Works Department has accepted the fact that concerns about the environmental and health effects of herbicides are widespread. Substitutes such as mowing or seeding with trouble-free plants have come to be the most common - and, for the past five years, the only - means of keeping roadside weeds under control, and the most troublesome herbicides have been removed from the chemical arsenal.

On Wednesday the Public Works Department presented the commissioners the option of continuing the current moratorium for three years. Another option was to permit the use of herbicides for four purposes: to control noxious and invasive plants, to clear brush from 16 of the county's 80 miles of guardrails, to work in partnership with groups doing botanical restoration work, and to kill weeds growing in roadways before repair work is done. The board voted for the first option, and removed the three-year limit on the moratorium.

By imposing a permanent and total ban on herbicides, the board has invited some unwanted consequences. Just one example: A few weeks ago county crews mowed behind guardrails along Delta Highway in Eugene, cutting grass and blackberries to ground level. Blackberry canes have already regrown to the top of the guardrail. Along Delta Highway, and in other places, blackberry canes will reach over the shoulder and into the roadway. Safety and visibility problems will result, particularly for bicyclists, who will have a hard time avoiding the thorny tangles.

The ability to beat back blackberries and other brush has been diminished by the loss of federal funds that used to flow into the county road fund, and the related rollback of the county inmate work program. The county has been losing ground against roadside vegetation for five years in places where manual or mechanical methods have proved difficult or ineffective, and will lose even more as financial resources and personnel become more scarce.

A last resort policy is right for Lane County, and it should mean just that: Herbicides are applied only when nothing else works and weed control is necessary to ensure safety, remove hazards and prevent damage to roads. Instead, the last resort has been ruled out, even if a stubborn outbreak of truly noxious and invasive plants should occur. The commissioners would have been well-advised to leave the Public Works Department with more flexibility.