City of Ashland: Stop spraying toxic chemicals like Glyphosate on public lands for routine landscape maintenance

The citizens of Ashland are largely health conscious and environmentally proactive. We object to the newly adopted practice of spraying Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) on the city's median strips to inhibit weed growth and want the city to: 

1. Halt the glyphosate spraying in our medians and highly trafficked areas

     2. Use safer, more environmentally protective options for all routine maintenance going forward

     3. Prioritize drought tolerant, pollinator friendly landscaping and maintain our Bee City USA status

     4. Discontinue the landscaping tactic of removing plants from medians and replacing with rocks

Human Risk:

Glyphosate, which was recently used on our medians and which is the active ingredient in Round Up, is banned in many countries around the world. It is linked to certain cancers like Non Hodgkin lymphoma, and is involved in many lawsuits where the injured plaintiffs have won.

• In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”.

• As of late 2025, Bayer (the owner of Round Up) has paid more than $11 billion to resolve nearly 100,000 Roundup claims, with thousands more still pending.

Environmental Risk:

• In addition to human risks, Glyphosate poses significant risk to pollinators, including disruption of their gut biome, and inhibition of their navigation abilities. 

• Ashland has been affiliated with Bee City USA since 2015, and as such has made a commitment to reduce the use of pesticides and to have an integrated pest management plan that expands the use of non-chemical pest management methods. 

As a Bee City USA, Ashland should preserve the habitats and food sources we already have for pollinators. The increased use of herbicides that we are seeing does not fit in with our commitments to pollinators. We should be setting a better example than this as land stewards.

There are many options for natural landscaping, including locally available, non-toxic and bee friendly substitutes for Glyphosate. 

Therefore:

With all the known risks and controversy surrounding glyphosate and around herbicides and pesticides in general, we call on the city of Ashland to eliminate glyphosate and similar herbicides from your landscape maintenance practice. 

Ashland’s citizens want you to uphold the city’s commitment to using the least harmful methods of management and help keep our community healthy and safe, which also includes considering the wildlife and insects that share these spaces.