Dear citizens of Wilmington & New Hanover County, North Carolina:

The information compiled here is comprehensive, and can be overwhelming, but in simple terms, we are experiencing a chronic health epidemic in the United States that is now impacting every family...and part of the reason for this is that we are poisoning ourselves with pesticides.

The purpose of this petition is to ask New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington to take into account what we know about the impact of pesticides on quality of life, ecosystems, and public health, and establish policy that repsects this understanding.  

Living soil is the foundation for life on Earth, and represents a potent solution to many of the big challenges that we face. Living soil methods regenerate ecosystems, they grow healthy soil, not just plants. We must take responsibility for our role within living systems, let us seek to work with nature, not against her. 

The City of Wilmington, New Hanover County, and New Hanover County Schools are out of alignment with this idea. Currently, all are maintaining parks and public land using toxic chemicals such as glyphosate and 2,4-D that are known to cause human disease. 

Visit www.glyphosatefacts.com, and read the article, Glyphosate and Roundup: All Roads Lead to Cancer – New Study, as an example of some of the science, HERE.

Glyphosate in particular is dangerous not just for its toxicity, which restricts the healthy expression of amino acids - the alphabet of life - but also because it is water soluble, it is now being found in more than 80% of urine samples, and up to 75% of air and rain samples. 

Watch the short film by Farmers Footprint for a deep dive on the environmental and health impacts of glyphosate, HERE.

Pesticides are also known to contain PFAS chemicals, read the Scientific American article Pesticides are Spreading Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' HERE.

Clean water is critical for all living organisms to thrive. At the end of the Cape Fear River watershed, we humans are particulary vulnerable. The story of "cancer alley" at the mouth of the Mississippi River is told in the above Farmers Footprint short film, it should call our thinking, feeling, and willing into action.

As a result of corporate pollution, industrial agriculture, and the rest of the mineral and toxic inputs that accumulate in the Cape Fear River, we have some of the poorest water quality in the United States. Taxpayer money has constructed a ~$40 million filter, which is a good first line of defense, but it does not protect us from the onslaught of corporate pollution that we experience in Southeastern NC. 

At the City and County level, we need a voice in this regional conversation. We can no longer afford to ignore the importance of land care policies and their impact on ecosystems and public health. If we want to make things better, if we want a righteous voice in the regional conversation, if we want to seek real solutions, then we must act with integrity and lead by example. 

We are not doing that. Instead, we are using an artificial approach to living systems on every level, and we are paying for it in more ways than one.

Further, there is currently no policy in place with the City or County to ensure safe land care standards in regards to quality of life, ecosystems, and public health. Not only are we not monitoring ourselves, but we have no protocol other than state-level conventional pesticide standards to guide third party contracted applicators. 

The following lists were obtained with public information requests, then researched and collected manually from purchase orders and application logs. In other words, you will not find these lists on the City or County websites. 

Note that the term "pesticide" is being used for any chemical designed to kill living organisms (insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, nematicide, etc).

Both fertilizers and pesticides were asked for in the request, and while all fertilizers were artificial/synthetic, they were not included in the reports: 

HERE are the pesticides being applied in Wilmington. 

HERE are the pesticides being applied in New Hanover County. 

HERE are the pesticides being applied at New Hanover County Schools. 

The lists are the worst of the worst. The products being used represent a fast food approach to agriculture that maintains poor soil conditions, and a stratgey of toxic rescue chemistry in an attempt to kill the symptoms generated. 

Using man-made materials in natural systems results in weak ecosystems, which triggers the use of more and more fertilizers and pesticides, with less and less impact. It is a toxic vicious cycle that kills ecosystems, and a primary source of the very serious and growing health and environmental challenges that we are facing. 

Due to decades of poor policy and indiscriminate use of known toxins in our ecosystems, our quality of life, ecosystems, and public health have been compromised.

Following are public health metrics collected by D​r. Zach Bush:

• Allergy = 1:4 children
• Asthma = 1:8 children
• Attention Deficit = 1:8 children
• Autism = 1:36 children
• Depression = 1:2 adults
• Diabetes = 1:4 adults
• Cancer = 1:2 adults
• Obesity = 1:3 adults

The terrifying part are of this data is, not only how high these numbers are, but how rapidly these conditions are escalating as a result of the sustained and increasing toxic engagement of our ecosystems. 

Our policies and actions are out of alignment of what we would want if we were asked, and even how we prsent ourselves. For instance, the City of Wilmington has a Bee City USA designation and is spraying the following pesticides toxic to bees: Dismiss NXT Herbicide (Carfentrazone-ethyl & Sulfentrazone), Imidacloprid 2F Insecticide (Imidacloprid).

New Hanover County is using the following pesticides toxic to bees and pollinators: Bandit Insecticide (Imidacloprid), Talstar PL Granular Insecticide (Bifenthrin), Topchoice Insecticide (Fipronil), Conserve SC Insecticide (Spinosid), Aloft LC G Insecticide (Clothianidin), Blindside Post Emergent Water Dispersible Granule Herbicide (Metsulfuron), Biomist 4-4 (Permethrin).

This petition is an attempt at a complete thought about a dynamic topic, and a message to local, state, and federal officials active in our region that the people of Wilmington and New Hanover County demand safe land care practices on public land.   

It is not more expensive to do the right thing, in fact, it is profitable. Ending the use of artificial fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, and implementing regenerative living soil methods, not only improves the health of humans and ecosysytems, it improves soil and plant/tree quality, mitigates flooding and irrigation by increasing soil organic matter to hold stormwater, and sequesters carbon to engage climate commitments, and more. 

Soil organic matter in our region is very low, around 1-2%. Unless soil is at least 4% organic matter it cannot properly perform its functions for healthy plant growth. Did you know that a 1% increase in soil organic matter per acre holds 25,000 gallons of water (and adds 30 lbs of bioavailable nitrogen)? This is enough water to fill a 25x25' swimming pool 4' deep, and the 1% increase in organic matter can be accomplished by placing only 1/2-1" of compost on the ground in a single application, a powerful antidote to stormwater challenges. 

In fact, we could raise our organic matter 4-5% over time with a public policy of using compost that can be created from the waste stream of the NHC landfill that is going to run out in 28 years. More than 50% of the landfill can be composted, which would more than double its longevity, and give us time to organize around the waste-to-energy tech that is now available and capable of ending landfills. The budget available for this is the cost of shipping our trash to another county. 

We can turn trash into treasure, we can turn the problem of poor soil and water quality into solutions from our waste stream with biochar and compost. However, to receive the value of these powerful natural materials it is important to have a land care approach that is in alignment natural principles. In other words, it makes no sense to grow living soil, then come behind it with synthetic pesticides designed to kill life. 

The forest is more powerful than the trees, and we cannot solve dynamic problems with a linear approach, putting out fires does not work. We need to recognize multiple levels of impact, we need to stack functions, see the problem as the solution, and establish and invest in systems thinking.

Let us challenge our local decision makers to implement true cost accounting methods that include environmental and economic impact studies for conserving ecosystems and improving quality of life. No longer can we afford to remain ignorant and let the impact of known toxins be termed an "externality" to be ignored. 

How can we possibly use the excuse that we do not have a budget to take public and environmental health seriously? How much is spraying poisons on playgrounds worth?

Our health is priceless, and there is money in the margins of the status quo. For example, the City of Wilmington spends >$1.5 million annually at the NHC landfill in tipping fees and gets no value in return other than dumping trash. What if instead we got biochar capable of cleaning Greenfield Lake, and compost that can help the trees on Randall Parkway grow without being replaced every other year, and a reduction in the landfill volume that actually has an economic value, and on and on?

Plus, as a region, healthy ecosystems may be our most important economic asset. Our natural environment and proximity to the coast is a primary reason people want to move and vacation here. A policy and commitment to improve soil quality with bulk composting, protect public health with natural land care, and investing in the green tech available to engage healthy waste stream management would go a long way towards reinforcing this brand.  

It all starts with reverence for the living soil, then aligning real commitments of policy and action. This includes City and County staff that are exposed to the chemicals of a conventional approach. The landmark case of the groundskeeper Lee Johnson chronicled in the film Into the Weeds that describes the first lawsuit to proceed to trial over Monsanto's Roundup herbicide product causing cancer...Monsanto lost. 

Bayer purchased Monsanto. HERE is a recent $2.25 billion lawsuit that Bayer lost on the grounds of causing cancer. We are currently spraying this chemical at the Riverwalk and on school grounds, for examples.

There is plenty of precedent for natural land care. Communities from 28 states - including Pittsburg, PA, Atlanta, GA, Seattle, WA, Tucson, AZ, Matthews, NC - have already taken steps to restrict the indiscriminate use of toxic pesticides to protect public health and the environment. Read the full list HERE.  

There is a better way. The Natural Park Pilot underway in Wilmington is an important opportunity to engage local land care policies. It was authorized by Wilmington City Council for Olsen Park, which is jointly owned by the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County. The City manages the grounds crew, and approriated $10,000 in grant funds from Stonyfield Organic to offset costs for the project. 

The pilot involves using regenerative methods to grow soil, not just grass. Two ball fields will receive regenerative methods, while the remaining three fields will receive conventional management. Baseline training, soil testing and initial applications of organic inputs has already been done, the work on the ground began in Spring 2023.

The Natural Park Pilot is a good step forward, but it is only starting point for conversation and policy change, we must change policy regardless.  

The goal is to use the Natural Park Pilot as a spotlight to guide and inform future policy, but there is so much we can do regardless of the ball field results. We need a complete reboot of how we approach land care and waste stream management.

In summary, here are the asks of this petition:

1. Immediatley end the use of synthetic pesticides & fertilizers at parks & on playgrounds
2. Generate SOP's for an "organics first" protocol that seeks the increase in soil organic matter & exchange capacity, & defines logical steps to use synthetic inputs for all land care activity as a last resort only, including third party applicators
3. Establish a budget that accounts for the professionals, materials & labor required to run City & County parks safely using regenerative living soil methods 
4. Commit to establishing consistent communication with the public regarding regenerative living soil methods 
5. Fully support the Natural Park Pilot in Olsen Park with the resources that it needs to be a starting point for changing our land care policies, & as a case study for the socioeconomic impact of regenerative living soil methods
6. Commit to activating a joint City/County Sustainability Task Force similar to the Clean Energy Task Force by the City of Wilmington that reviews regional land care practices & waste stream management with the mandate to establish public policy that reinforces environmental & public health

...

Please sign this petition to urge local, state, and federal officials active in Wilmington and New Hanover County to commit to educating themselves on these issuies and take responsibility for our land care and waste stream policies through the lens of quality of life, healthy ecosystems, and public health - the happiness and health of the people and our planet depend on it.

Please share this petition far and wide. 

Thank you.

Sincerely, 

Life on Earth

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Please consider sending this petition with your own personal note to the following local decision makers:

City of Wilmington - City Council

• Bill Saffo: bill.saffo@wilmingtonnc.gov
• Clifford Barnett: clifford.barnett@wilmingtonnc.gov
• Charles Rivenbark: charlie.rivenbark@wilmingtonnc.gov
• Kevin Spears: kevin.spears@wilmingtonnc.gov
• Luke Waddell: luke.waddell@wilmingtonnc.gov
• David Joyner: david.joyner@wilmingtonnc.gov
• Salette Andrews: salette.andrews@wilmingtonnc.gov

New Hanover County - County Commissioners

• Bill Rivenbark: brivenbark@nhcgov.com
• LeAnn Pierce: lpierce@nhcgov.com
• Jonathan Barfield: jbarfield@nhcgov.com
• Dane Scalise: dscalise@nhcgov.com
• Rob Zapple: rzapple@nhcgov.com