Leaf Letter - Spokane County
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Leaf Letter
The Newsletter of Spokane County’s
Master Composters/Recyclers
Winter Edition February 2021
In this issue:
Class Begins in March
2021 Class Begins 1
The 2021 MC/R class will be virtual again this year. Starting March 23, weekly
in March meetings will be held Tuesday evenings from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Small group “learning
labs” will be scheduled weekends in the compost demo area at The Green Zone
to give students the opportunity to make a compost pile, turn and monitor it, and
Continuing 2 observe how a compost tea and bokashi bucket works up close.
Education
Opportunities
MC/R graduates are welcome to attend sessions and can find the schedule of
topics along with links to the virtual lessons on the Google shared calendar.
Clopyralid is back 3
in the NW
Tips for
Composters 4
STEAM in the 4
Garden
Check MC/Rs out
on Facebook
Page 2 Leaf Letter
Upcoming Continuing Education Opportunities
We still can’t meet in person, but there are ways we can see and learn from
each other. Join MC/Rs in March and April at continuing education classes.
Network with others while learning valuable information you can share.
Link to the March 2 DIY Bokashi Class.
THANK
YOU!
My appreciation
in advance to
MC/R legends
Tera Lessard and
Laren Sunde for
putting together
and teaching the Link to The Dirt on Your Soil class.
Bokashi and Soil
classes.
You won’t want
to miss them!
Winter Edition Page 3
News You Can Use—Clopyralid Back in the News
The persistent herbicide clopyralid
showed up in test results of finished
compost blends applied to gardens in
Oregon and Washington during the
spring and summer of 2020. These
episodes prompted the Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) to issue a new fact
sheet, Herbicide Residues In Compost.
State rules prohibit the use of
Not Just
clopyralid on residential or commercial Oregon
properties.
Clopyralid and other herbicides in the
If you remember
same chemical family show up in finished reading in the MC/R
compost every few years, according to training manual,
the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Clopyralid was a
These herbicides leave residues in serious nuisance in
compost that can damage sensitive Spokane County
composting too. It
garden plants, such as tomatoes, beans, was a contributing
peas, sunflowers, eggplant, parsley, factor to the
potatoes, petunias, and pansies, even at closure of a city-run
low concentrations of about two parts composting facility
per billion. Most herbicides break down and subject of a
lawsuit against
in a composting process. However, Dupont Chemicals
clopyralid and other herbicides in its chemical family, which also includes that was only set-
aminopyralid and picloram, are very slow to break down and residues may tled a few years ago.
remain in finished compost. The chemical was
Clopyralid residue is the most commonly found herbicide contaminating banned for home
use in Washington
compost in the Northwest, according to DEQ. Testing in 2020 found the
State in 2002.
presence of clopyralid residue in a number of agricultural crops and wastes,
including mushroom compost, dairy manure, straw and canola meal. Clopyralid
residue may also be found in straw used for dairy and horse bedding and
grains fed to livestock and poultry. Crops treated with clopyralid are banned
as composting feedstock, but those materials are indistinguishable from crops
not treated with clopyralid and sometimes still end up at composting facilities,
which can contaminate finished compost.
The Fact Sheet suggests asking questions before accepting organic waste
from agricultural, golf course or other sources where clopyralid may be
present. Examples include: “If you’re using vegetative waste from agriculture
or landscaping, what herbicides were used on the landscape, hay, pasture or
crop? If you’re using manure, what were the animals fed? Was it clopyralid
free?” Links to a number of resources are included in the document.
You can find the link to the Fact Sheet here.
Spokane Master Composters/Recyclers
Page 4
TIPS FOR COMPOSTERS
MC/R Christie Bruntlett wanted to share this tip.
If your compost thermometer is getting hard to read because of hard water
mineral buildup on the glass, clean the glass with Bar Keeper’s Friend cleanser. It
will remove the mineral deposit and
2900 S. Geiger Blvd. will not scratch the glass. Look for Bar
Spokane, WA 99224 Keepers’ Friend in the grocery store or
Phone: 509-625-6580 hardware store. It comes in a can like
Recycling
other cleansers as well as a liquid.
Information: 509-477-6800 Christie prefers the powdered. It’s also
E-mail: great for lots of other things like sinks
solidwaste@spokanecity.org and the copper bottoms of her 58-year
-old Revere Ware pans.
We are on the web!
spokanecountysolidwaste.org
STEAM IN THE GARDEN
Waste Reduction Lessons for the East Central Neighborhood, Spokane
The City of Spokane Solid Waste Department is proud to champion an
exciting new curriculum that teaches waste reduction lessons to underserved
youth and children with disabilities through an interactive garden and
The Leaf Letter is a composting program. STEAM in the Garden integrates the concepts of
publication of the
Spokane County Regional
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math in lessons where students
Solid Waste System build and manage a community garden and compost system. A pilot program
(SCRSWS) with partial focusing on students living in low-income apartment complexes in Spokane’s
funding provided by a East Central Neighborhood will be the testing ground for this curriculum
grant from the beginning in March.
Washington State
Department of Ecology.
Developed by recent MC/R graduate Latesha Wood, this innovative
curriculum was recently recognized by the Washington State Department of
Editor: Kris Major Ecology as a recipient of its Waste Not Washington School Awards Program.
Funding from the award will allow Latesha to purchase tools and acquire
supplies to teach students in East Central the importance of reducing waste
through recycling and composting as well as ways to address food insecurity.
Students will learn about recycling
right and composting, and will build
and plant their own garden boxes.
Seeds and seedlings are being
generously donated by Catholic
Charities. Students will also build
their own bokashi buckets and
compost tea brewers. If you would
When printed, it is on recycled/
recyclable paper.
like to be involved as a teacher or
mentor, please contact Kris and she
will put you in touch with Latesha.
You can also read
