Public Policy in the Weeds (Literally)
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Benjamin H. Deitchman
April 25, 2020
Leafy green menaces fill our fields, forests and lakes. These vegetative invaders look innocent, but they infiltrate the ecosystems and impair economic opportunities through their unrestrained growth. Non-native species are not as transparently toxic as chemical wastes, but they are a human-driven stain on our environment. The challenges of weeds offer opportunities to explore creative community solutions to persistent and annoying problems for policymakers, businesses and citizens.
Along the Atlanta Beltline wild weeds sprout, overtaking native and purposefully planted flora that line this expanding pathway. The Beltline is a paved walking, running, biking and scootering trail through the heart of Atlanta on former railroad right-of-ways. It has emerged over the past decade as a central cultural, entertainment and economic locus for the city and greater metropolitan area. Although out-of-place plants are not going to threaten the business and residential development of this corridor, protecting the green space surrounding the Beltline is an instrumental effort along the project’s development. Sustainably weeding this heavily travelled urban oasis is a labor-intensive undertaking.
Trees Atlanta, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the region’s landscape, has furthered the multisectoral partnerships, which the Atlanta Beltline requires and facilitates in its community-based expansion, in an innovative effort at invasive vegetation removal. One night per week throughout the summer Trees Atlanta organizes a volunteer Weeds and Wine event for people to pull the problematic plants. Rotating local restaurants that benefit from Beltline proximity contribute the wine and other treats for the participants. The businesses are not just acting socially responsible—they are also providing support to this lucrative trail that moves the neighborhood consumer base.
The most obvious success of Weeds and Wine is the brown bags of weeds that the volunteer crew hauls away to allow for preferred species to flourish. The secondary benefits of the wine are also noteworthy. The socially entrepreneurial program builds goodwill and social capital between individuals, the community organization and small businesses. As an easily explained and relatively rote task that human beings can achieve much more easily and effectively than machines, or even goats, Trees Atlanta is able to benefit the unpaid workforce and the greater community, providing volunteers an opportunity that is necessarily fruitful and useful. By engaging the public these sorts of activities help the Beltline to be more than just well-placed pavement and a beneficial feature of Atlanta’s personality and future.
The optimal approach to invasive plants is to prevent their introduction in the first place. Lake Tahoe, for example, has heavy restrictions to ensure that only clean boats enter its blue waters. This policy requires intensive regulation and cooperation, but the alternative of allowing a potent plant that reproduces to infect the lake for decades to come could damage the beauty and economic opportunity of this West Coast freshwater treasure. In Augur Lake, a small body of water in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, strands of Eurasian milfoil, an invasive seaweed, first entered in the 1970s. The North Country Camps, a pair of summer camps on the lake, have used specialized watercraft and life-jacketed counselors with pitchforks to remove truckloads of this persistent pest for recreation to continue on the lake. Specialized infertile weed-eating fish introduced into the lake have aided this process. While the weeds in Augur Lake have not led to problems on the scale of water chestnuts in nearby Lake Champlain, invasive species are a constant struggle of our mobile and sometimes careless modern population.
Weeds are like death and taxes—they will surely outlive all of us. They are rarely the most important or vexing challenge facing our communities, environment or society as a whole. Their effects, however, are notable, as are the needs for innovative approaches to reduce their scourge. As policymakers, students and scholars, we can learn from simple weeds the challenges of human impacts on our environment and the opportunities for human mitigation of this impact. There are not any perfect solutions, but we can always remember that the perfect need not be the enemy of the good.
It is outside the scope of this column that for humanity we are living at a time where the primary replicative invasive of concern right now is Covid-19. I wish all the best to everyone at this trying time for ourselves, our communities, our profession and our planet. For those of you looking for some entertaining but vaguely public policy and public administration related content while sheltering in place, some of my previous columns here have addressed several excellent shows to stream right now:
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Let us serve the public as best we can!
Author: Benjamin Deitchman is a public policy practitioner in Atlanta, Georgia. Ben is a regular volunteer for Weeds and Wine and previously worked removing weeds from Augur Lake. He is on Twitter @Deitchman. Dr. Deitchman’s email address is DeitchmanB at gmail.com
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Public Policy in the Weeds (Literally)
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Benjamin H. Deitchman
April 25, 2020
Leafy green menaces fill our fields, forests and lakes. These vegetative invaders look innocent, but they infiltrate the ecosystems and impair economic opportunities through their unrestrained growth. Non-native species are not as transparently toxic as chemical wastes, but they are a human-driven stain on our environment. The challenges of weeds offer opportunities to explore creative community solutions to persistent and annoying problems for policymakers, businesses and citizens.
Along the Atlanta Beltline wild weeds sprout, overtaking native and purposefully planted flora that line this expanding pathway. The Beltline is a paved walking, running, biking and scootering trail through the heart of Atlanta on former railroad right-of-ways. It has emerged over the past decade as a central cultural, entertainment and economic locus for the city and greater metropolitan area. Although out-of-place plants are not going to threaten the business and residential development of this corridor, protecting the green space surrounding the Beltline is an instrumental effort along the project’s development. Sustainably weeding this heavily travelled urban oasis is a labor-intensive undertaking.
Trees Atlanta, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the region’s landscape, has furthered the multisectoral partnerships, which the Atlanta Beltline requires and facilitates in its community-based expansion, in an innovative effort at invasive vegetation removal. One night per week throughout the summer Trees Atlanta organizes a volunteer Weeds and Wine event for people to pull the problematic plants. Rotating local restaurants that benefit from Beltline proximity contribute the wine and other treats for the participants. The businesses are not just acting socially responsible—they are also providing support to this lucrative trail that moves the neighborhood consumer base.
The most obvious success of Weeds and Wine is the brown bags of weeds that the volunteer crew hauls away to allow for preferred species to flourish. The secondary benefits of the wine are also noteworthy. The socially entrepreneurial program builds goodwill and social capital between individuals, the community organization and small businesses. As an easily explained and relatively rote task that human beings can achieve much more easily and effectively than machines, or even goats, Trees Atlanta is able to benefit the unpaid workforce and the greater community, providing volunteers an opportunity that is necessarily fruitful and useful. By engaging the public these sorts of activities help the Beltline to be more than just well-placed pavement and a beneficial feature of Atlanta’s personality and future.
The optimal approach to invasive plants is to prevent their introduction in the first place. Lake Tahoe, for example, has heavy restrictions to ensure that only clean boats enter its blue waters. This policy requires intensive regulation and cooperation, but the alternative of allowing a potent plant that reproduces to infect the lake for decades to come could damage the beauty and economic opportunity of this West Coast freshwater treasure. In Augur Lake, a small body of water in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, strands of Eurasian milfoil, an invasive seaweed, first entered in the 1970s. The North Country Camps, a pair of summer camps on the lake, have used specialized watercraft and life-jacketed counselors with pitchforks to remove truckloads of this persistent pest for recreation to continue on the lake. Specialized infertile weed-eating fish introduced into the lake have aided this process. While the weeds in Augur Lake have not led to problems on the scale of water chestnuts in nearby Lake Champlain, invasive species are a constant struggle of our mobile and sometimes careless modern population.
Weeds are like death and taxes—they will surely outlive all of us. They are rarely the most important or vexing challenge facing our communities, environment or society as a whole. Their effects, however, are notable, as are the needs for innovative approaches to reduce their scourge. As policymakers, students and scholars, we can learn from simple weeds the challenges of human impacts on our environment and the opportunities for human mitigation of this impact. There are not any perfect solutions, but we can always remember that the perfect need not be the enemy of the good.
It is outside the scope of this column that for humanity we are living at a time where the primary replicative invasive of concern right now is Covid-19. I wish all the best to everyone at this trying time for ourselves, our communities, our profession and our planet. For those of you looking for some entertaining but vaguely public policy and public administration related content while sheltering in place, some of my previous columns here have addressed several excellent shows to stream right now:
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Let us serve the public as best we can!
Author: Benjamin Deitchman is a public policy practitioner in Atlanta, Georgia. Ben is a regular volunteer for Weeds and Wine and previously worked removing weeds from Augur Lake. He is on Twitter @Deitchman. Dr. Deitchman’s email address is DeitchmanB at gmail.com
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