Letter of the Day: A confederacy of dunces

Editor, Index-Tribune:

I usually don’t get too riled up about the things that go on around us. But sometimes logic must prevail and stupidity should not be rewarded. In the day, I was a little more political. Back in the ‘60s, I was in the California Native Plant Society. Then it was a more militant group.

When the Berkeley People’s Park standoff occurred between activist students and police, we were there. We marched out between the warring groups with our shovels in hand, and planted little California Redwood trees. The Park became a People’s garden with demonstration gardens, community growing beds and landscaped with California native plants. But, mostly, it turned into a home for Berkeley’s homeless population.

Then in 2011 much of the community gardens and mature trees were bulldozed by the University to provide students with “safer more sanitary conditions.” Goodbye Redwoods.

There are still things today that get me upset about stupidity. The City of Sonoma spraying a known carcinogenic indiscriminate herbicide along our walking path to convert green borders into dead dirt is stupid.

Allowing petrochemical powered leaf blowers to push dry leaves from one side of the sidewalk to the other while blowing toxic dust into the air for us to breath is stupid – “get a rake.”

Now the issue of Sonoma Compost has me crying foul. The state demands that cities reduce the amount of waste in the landfills. Sonoma County has done a great job of reducing garbage load by recycling paper, plastic, glass, and metal waste, and also diverting backyard green waste into compost. Sonoma Compost creates usable soil additive for homeowners and commercial growers.

During the rainy season (what rainy season?) heavy storm water runs off the hills at Sonoma Compost and some of the water gets into otherwise dry creek beds. Well, the neighbors don’t like the dumps out on Meachem Road in Petaluma to begin with. (Maybe, don’t buy a home next to the dumps.) So, they are suing the County claiming the runoff is damaging the “creek” and may harm the California Tiger Salamander. First, they are getting Compost Tea, we should charge them for it, and second – isn’t runoff from a compost pile the exact kind of environment that a salamander just loves?

Now the County is thinking of rolling over and shutting down the Sonoma Compost operation and trucking away all our green waste in gas guzzling trucks to Vacaville for composting. By then the Compost will be too expensive for anyone to have it shipped back to Sonoma County. This is stupid.

I have signed a petition to stop the County from committing stupidity. If you get the chance, I hope you will so the same.

Happy Gardening with a nice top dressing of two inches of compost.

Dennis Przybycien

Sonoma