Unauthorized Poison Ivy Spraying - Eldorado Canyon

Hey -

Someone took it upon themselves to dose some of the poison ivy along the Streamside trail with something nasty. I'd bet Roundup. Not cool.

This is what poison ivy should look like at this time of year:

This is one of the worst hit patches:

Poison Ivy is a native species in Eldorado Canyon. Eldorado has both Western (Toxicodendron rydbergii) and Eastern (Toxicodendron radicans) species. The leaves (and maybe berries) are eaten by all kinds of animals.

In the process, the spray-er:

• Damaged/killed other native plants, including three-leaf Sumac and wax currants
• Sprayed off-trail areas as well as areas near the trail
• Sprayed within 50 feet of South Boulder Creek
• Did not inform any visitors, let alone park personnel, of their spraying. There are people who have SERIOUS allergies to defoliants strolling through the area with no warning, there are multiple beekeepers near the park, ...

I don't know if this was a climber. The ivy at the base of Genesis and the Whale's tail appears to be unsprayed.

That being said: In case it was a climber, and in case they (or someone that knows them) surfs the proj:
Anybody who knows me and the work I do around here will tell you that I'm pretty approachable and have a long track record of going above and beyond for the climbing community. You probably don't know that I also manage poison ivy with hand tools. I can't imagine dumping that toxic crap near the same creek that Eldorado Springs residents live next to and lots of people play in. I know that bashing land management employees is a "thing" for some members of the climbing community, but unilateral actions like this on shared lands is lame. There are such better ways to contribute to taking care of Eldo. (I have no idea how I wrote that without cursing).

PM me if you have some details, or want to contribute to this special, special place.

Mike

Are you positive it was sprayed or just leaning that way?  Maybe the cold snap a little bit ago got to them?  I just don’t see any evidence other than a hunch. 

DWF 3 wrote: Are you positive it was sprayed or just leaning that way?  Maybe the cold snap a little bit ago got to them?  I just don’t see any evidence other than a hunch. 

Yes, Don. Hike the trail. It's obvious.

Thanks for posting this up Mike. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open. This is horrific and I’m not sure why someone would do that especially by the river. It was done in bad taste, but I have a feeling this was someone not educated in LNT. The only thing I have to add is I was talking to my father in law who lives in Austin. He mentioned to my wife and I while on speaker phone that he was going out and spraying poison ivy with round up on the trails by his house. My wife and I both looked at eachother with our jaws dropped to the ground, shocked. Now I don’t think he flew out and is the culprit in this incident but the point I’m trying to make is he thinks he’s doing a public service in Ivy control. He didn’t get why it was wrong or a bad thing to do.

Perhaps could the park make some postings about the incident pointing out what happened to discourage/ put on notice repeat offenders and also educating other visitors that this is something that shouldn’t be happening in our state parks(Or any natural space)? Just wanted to point that out that unfortunately this person might think they’re doing everyone a service by doing some unwanted ivy mitigation.

Best,

- R

Mike McHugh wrote: Hey -
... The ivy at the base of Genesis and the Whale's tail appears to be unsprayed...

Don Ferris wrote: Are you positive it was sprayed or just leaning that way?  Maybe the cold snap a little bit ago got to them?

So, I guess there was no cold snap at Genesis and Whale's Tail, which is about 200 yards away from the most damaged areas.
As Mike suggests, if you hike along the trail you'll see mixed patches of healthy and damaged areas. Quite obvious what happened (unless covid has mutated and spreads via PI).

I've hiked up through that section to the W. face of Redguard twice in the last week or so and noticed the discoloration in the p.i. It looks like it is drying out in a way
one would expect in the fall. My partner on Wednesday even commented on how it looked unusual. It's the only place I've seen p.i. in Eldo that looks that way now,
and I think Mike's observations are probably accurate. 

I'm super-allergic to p.i., and have joked for 30 years that somebody should take some Roundup to some of the really bad places for it, like Mickey Mouse Wall. The truth
is it is part of the natural landscape. Any person that loves climbing in the outdoors should (obviously) find a better way to manage the risk than spraying cancer-causing chemicals
in a place that we all cherish.

I was also joking how we should get a crew of rednecks, buy 'em a case of bad beer, and send them into Eldo to kill 'em some snakes. There seems to be a lot of rattlesnakes
around right now. Again, joking aside, as much as I get freaked out by rattlesnakes, they are a natural part of a place that I love dearly.

Please everyone, take care of Eldo. It is such a precious place. 

I am deathly allergic to urushiol oil, but there are mitigation efforts that are better than herbicides. Like Tyvek suits, and not going places where there is PI.

I have hunting property that I applied Crossbow herbicide to wipe out 20-30 acres of PI and replanted with a northern whitetail variety that a variety of animals will eat and won't keep me from enjoying the property.

Patrik wrote:
So, I guess there was no cold snap at Genesis and Whale's Tail, which is about 200 yards away from the most damaged areas.
As Mike suggests, if you hike along the trail you'll see mixed patches of healthy and damaged areas. Quite obvious what happened (unless covid has mutated and spreads via PI).

Don't worry boys, it wasn't an attack.  Simply curious.

I'm not allergic to PI so it's never bothered me either way and I agree that a unilateral decision to exterminate a bunch of ivy is pretty lame.  Just seems like such a strange thing for someone to take upon themselves and if they did why not do a better job?  I'll be up there undoubtedly soon and am interested in checking it out.

Poison ivy is pretty nasty, I wish it was all dead.

Defoliant is not the right way to do this.  Especially since the dead sticks are just a toxic as fresh leaves.

Gardening work to fully and carefully remove poison ivy or poison oak is the only way to develop routes or trail.

When I did development work at Texas Canyon I spent 3 weekends removing bushels of PO that made the area virtually unusable.  It has been a booming crag ever since.  Well worth the effort.  I wore old clothes and gloves and had to throw them away after each work session.  I carefully pulled up all the roots and hiked all the remains a safe distance to an area several hundred feet away from human activity.  It's just work.   

Brad White wrote: I'm super-allergic to p.i., and have joked for 30 years that somebody should take some Roundup to some of the really bad places for it, like Mickey Mouse Wall. The truth
is it is part of the natural landscape. Any person that loves climbing in the outdoors should (obviously) find a better way to manage the risk than spraying cancer-causing chemicals
in a place that we all cherish.

I was also joking how we should get a crew of rednecks, buy 'em a case of bad beer, and send them into Eldo to kill 'em some snakes. There seems to be a lot of rattlesnakes
around right now. Again, joking aside, as much as I get freaked out by rattlesnakes, they are a natural part of a place that I love dearly.

Please everyone, take care of Eldo. It is such a precious place.

Got an absolutely horrendous poison ivy rash at Mickey Mouse Wall a couple years ago, but I still don't want something like this to happen there. I learned a lot about poison ivy from that experience, and I am much more aware and vigilant now wherever I go. As Brad said, poison ivy is part of the natural landscape, so it's my responsibility to pay attention and protect myself.

Why do you guys assume it was roundup???

Climberdude wrote: Why do you guys assume it was roundup???

'Bout time one of us stuck up for roundup. It could just as well have been orthoclear or plain old rm43! Typical mountainproj bias, assuming it was glyphosate when it could just as well have been 2,4-Dichloro-acetic acid. I blame CNN.

Bravo Foxtrot wrote: Has anyone asked the park about this?  Have any facts beyond what can be seen from walking the trail.  I’m curious because it is a shitty thing to do, no doubt, but I’m also struggling to imagine a rando hauling a sprayer up there to half-ass a PI eradication.  Maybe I’m having trouble imagining who: a day tripper from Denver? A local who prefers herbicide to a limited area of PI?  An overzealous and completely oblivious to LNT climber?  A fresh from the gym, new set of cams, dude-bro who also thinks they can save their fellow man by spraying some of the PI in their new found outdoor-gym scene?  I’m just wondering if there’s not something else going on or more to the story than we know.   

Mike/OP is the park. Curious to know who, but Mike's overall message of "Dont do this, it's bad" is most important and him posting here is just one of the ways to reach one user group. The lesson is one all user groups should know. People fish and swim in that water all the time...

My bet is Karen got poison ivy one weekend (she didn't know what it looked like prior to that weekend), and got her husband to come get mortal revenge and do a "service".

Thank you for the public service Mike, you are appreciated!

noticed this last weekend when i was doing a trail patrol along stream side and thought it extremely strange  that the PI was so discolored. sorry guys, no freezes this time of year. i think the defoliant hypothesis is the most likely one. the PI was not over growing the trail so it was clearly not warranted. mike, maybe posting a sign near that huge cluster of plants would keep people away from it in the future. i'm guessing someone wandered through it and wanted to do some 'community service' but i try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

I've joked about this at the Red from time to time. Wouldn't actually do it, not my property, responsibility, money, or right. So, there are walls with routes I just don't consider worth it and won't climb at. I'm hypersensitive to PI, if I so much as look at it, I get it (exaggerating) so I won't dog Roundup tho (responsibly used of course) Saved my childhood. PI used to f*ck my shit up. Nothing fun about being on Prednisone for two weeks, taking Aveeno baths, or having bursting blisters and looking like a leper. My parents had it something awful behind there shed and awning. Sprayed it and planted mint in its place. That spread crazy too except now when your near it and the wind blows, you'd think someone's chewing a whole box worth of Extra

EDIT: that is until this invasive mafk makes it way to a crag near someone​

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_mantegazzianum​​​

Once Roundup dries, it’s pretty safe - edible, even.  There’d be a lot of dead pets out there otherwise.  Whatever the ethics and laws that apply - at least read the label on a few of these weed killers instead of making things up and freaking out.

First thing I see in that photo is a sloppy spray job.  I mean - at least do a good job if you really must.  Looks like 20% effectiveness for the effort - like a waste of time - like it’s all going to be back in about 3 weeks max.

what a shame, the ivy is really pretty this time of year.

I noticed a week ago that the ivy on the lower part of the Redgarden approach had been sprayed.  I thought the park had done it, but I guess not.

HUGE Tradifan wrote: This thread is soooooooooo ColoRADo.

What’s so Colorado?
​Spreading poison on property you don’t own?  Or a State Park employee raising the concern about spreading poison on property you don’t own?