Revegation Practice and Glyphosate

Recently I raised some concerns on fb regarding the current practices used for revegatation work along creek banks in my local area.

Basically, the practice is to use a glyphosate based product to spray the area to be replanted, and perhaps repeat this at intervals.  Once cleared, the young plants used in the revegatation process then have a better chance of becoming established.

What concerned me about this, other than the fact that I believe the use of chemicals in such a way is not a sustainable practice and is in fact somewhat contradictory to the idea behind the revegatation process, was that we may be doing more harm than good.

Glyphosate: a revisit

Back in the UK when I was a lowly agri student, the prospect of reducing costs in an agriculture enterprise by being able to happily spray a broad spectrum herbicide, that apparently had no affect on fauna or the soil, and having crops that were resistant to this, was interesting.

I had always been uncomfortable with the use of chemicals, but willing to use them in certain situations, when I could ensure that they were being used as safely as possible.  So, to me, glyphosate was "just another chemical".  One of the many that were used in agriculture.

Glyphosate for the Home Garden

Many of us have used Roundup, or other glyphosate based products, in the home garden in the belief that they are fairly harmless and breakdown completely on contact with the soil, thus having no lasting effects.