In Salt Lake City, a parks official accidentally killed hundreds of trees on public land by spraying them with "the wrong herbicide," NBC News affiliate KSL 5 TV reported.
The mistake will reportedly cost taxpayers around $500,000. Residents will also have to wait at least two years for the replacement trees to be planted, as it will take that long for the soil to be decontaminated.
According to Toby Hazelbaker, parks director for the Salt Lake City Public Lands Department, a city employee who is a state-certified sprayer erroneously sprayed the trees with Milestone herbicide, a weedkiller, instead of the unspecified non-tree-killing herbicide that they were supposed to use.
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"Everyone was shocked at the loss of the trees. People noticed that there were swaths of trees that had died," Hazelbaker told KSL. "It was a simple mistake, a grievous error, of course."
Milestone, produced by the Dow Chemical Company, relies on the active ingredient aminopyralid and was banned in Vermont in 2013.
The loss of hundreds of trees in Salt Lake City is not just an annoying taxpayer burden but also an active detriment to public health. Studies have shown that placing trees in urban environments has a tangible positive impact on the health of residents, providing cooling, cleaner air, and mental health benefits.
The story is a good example of how spraying toxic chemicals on plants, not all that surprisingly, often does more harm than good. If you are a home gardener, it is well worth it to look into the many viable methods of controlling both insect pests and weeds without the use of chemicals.
The good news, at least, is that the city does have a concrete plan to replace the trees and says that it will go with more resilient species that are less likely to fall victim to future herbicide blunders. It will also double the number of trees during replanting.
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