More Mosquito Bites...

Last night (08 February 2016), the Mt. Pleasant City Commission met for their regularly scheduled meeting.  One of their agenda items included a proposal to cancel a contract with APM Mosquito Control for the summer of 2016.  This contract was approved during a Commission meeting in November and has been under scrutiny by the public since that time.  Several newly elected commission member requested that the issue be brought back to the table so the item was placed on the agenda for last night's meeting.

I think the commission was surprised by the amount of public input on this subject.  The commission received several written communications on the subject, mostly against spraying.  During the public comment period of the meeting, approximately a dozen people opted to speak on the subject.  I once again spoke about the potential long term ecological effects of long-term nuisance mosquito control.  I was quickly followed by a representative of APM Mosquito Control who quickly tried to refute several of the statistics that I cited.

Many city residents urged the commission to make an informed decision based on need for the proposed mosquito control.  I even stated that if there was a public health issue that I would support control measures, but because mosquitoes are currently only a nuisance I could not support the measures based on the science.

In the end, the commission voted unanimously to cancel the proposed mosquito control contract for 2016, but wants to work with APM to conduct surveillance of mosquito populations to establish a baseline of population data and determine if there is a significant disease problem in Mt Pleasant's mosquitoes..  I think this is a sensible approach that the commission should have taken from the beginning and I applaud their willingness to listen to both public opinion and scientific data.

To read more about this subject please check out this post from February 3rd.

Mosquito bites...

I try to stay out of politics.  My goal with this blog is to discuss nature and science, not to talk about politics, but every once in a while politics intrudes.  I just did a search of my archives and found that in the past I have written about politics only a couple of times on this blog.  In April 2013 (updated September 2013), I wrote about how a budget fight in the United States Congress resulted in the temporary limiting of access and services at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Also in 2013, I wrote about a proposal by the City of Mt. Pleasant to build a dog park at Mission Creek Woodland Park - the proposal passed and 2 acres of woods were cleared to create the dog park.

Recently local politics has again intruded into my life.

The subject this time?

Mosquitoes...

A mosquito on a Tall Agrimony (Agrimonia gryposepala) plant

In November, the Mt. Pleasant City Commission hosted a public meeting to decide whether to enter into a contract for mosquito control in 2016.  I was asked by a concerned citizen to attend the meeting and discuss the environmental impact of mosquito spraying.  I did some research before the meeting and ended up addressing the commission during the public comment session.  Despite my concerns and the stated concerns of several city residents, the commission decided in a 4-3 vote to pursue a mosquito control contract for the upcoming year.

Now, a new city commission has been sworn in and the new commission wants to revisit the subject.  Since this was announced, I have been called by a representative of the mosquito control company that was awarded the city contract, asked to attend a meeting with the new mayor of Mt. Pleasant to discuss the situation, and visited at the office by members of the public.  I have also been quoted (and misquoted) in the newspaper several times.

I do not oppose mosquito control measures in all situations.  I just do not think that spraying for mosquitoes in Mt. Pleasant is currently warranted.  I also believe that the environmental impacts of mosquito control currently outweigh the benefits in Mt. Pleasant.  If situations change, I could change my mind.  That is the beauty of using science to make informed decisions.  I can change my opinion based on new evidence.  I want our local elected officials to use that kind of reasoning.

If you are a Mt. Pleasant resident, please let your city commissioner know how you feel about this issue.