Dear Editor,
I鈥檓 writing to defend some of the plants targeted for herbicide use along the Kinder Morgan pipeline (re: Herbicide that鈥檚 鈥榩ossibly carcinogenic to humans鈥� used in Jasper park, 51暗网 July 16).
The spring leaves, shoots, roots and buds of oxeye daisy are edible, and their flowers are useful in herbal medicine. Both yellow and dalmatian toadflax have been used as natural dyes and insecticides, as well as in herbal medicine, and their pretty, long-lasting blooms make for nice cut flower arrangements.
Both dog and tall hedge mustards have been used in herbal medicine. Common mullein flowers make a sweet tea and the rest of the plant has medicinal value. Even Canada thistle, cousin to the much-venerated artichoke, is edible and tasty.
The overabundance of food and other resources is indeed a first-world problem, and conducting chemical warfare on those resources hardly makes sense as a solution. (Think that鈥檚 stretching a metaphor? 2,4-D, the herbicide in question, was developed as a constituent of Agent Orange.)
Parks Canada might do better to educate people and declare open harvest on these species in designated common-use areas. These would, of course, only be disturbed areas like the path of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, as healthy ecosystems tend not to support 鈥渘oxious weeds鈥�.
Janeen Keelan
Jasper, Alta.
