Recently I [received] a warning ticket from the Asheville Sanitation Division for not cutting down the bushes and vines that grow thickly together in my back yard. I thought it should be the opposite. The backyard area is not visible from the street, and the front yard is cut, landscaped and maintained according to average-white-male American standards. I even went out against my will and spent $140 on a gas-powered weed eater (a tool which I deem to be one of the most absurd of all inventions) just to make the neighbors happy.
Now what’s got me confused about this ticket is the complete lack of attention to third-grade environmental academics. Please bear with me while we have a condensed review:
1. Most lawn mowers, weed eaters and plant-destructive tools run on fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gases, which we all know contribute to global warming and air pollution.
2. Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it, keeping the air clean for us to breathe.
3. Undergrowth and brush are prime nesting and feeding grounds for a variety of bird species in Western North Carolina. (I found two nests in the area I was required to cut down.)
4. According the EPA, “Yard waste is second only to paper in municipal solid waste streams … and is a major expense for municipal waste programs.” And you and your community have to pay for it.
5. Loud, motorized noise pollution scares wildlife out of its habitat, causes hearing loss in humans and wakes your neighbors up in a bad mood on Sunday mornings.
6. (This next issue is not an environmental one, but pertinent none the less.) It’s your yard! (Try arguing this point with the city.)
Now I don’t blame the Great City of Asheville for this glitch in the legal system; they are only trying to appease the community. I blame the anonymous, unfriendly neighbor who filed the complaint against me, and the people he represents. I guess he prefers the melodious sound of deafening gas-powered yard tools to the sound of birds chirping and singing. He must sit in his rocking chair on his porch with his eyes closed, deeply inhaling the gas fumes in the air, dreaming of a world afflicted by climate change and filled with global catastrophes for his grandchildren to run and play in. For information on greenscaping, check out www.epa.gov/greenscapes/index.htm
May the city of Asheville review Chapter 15 of the Code of Ordinances and its legal policy on sanitation, and take the planet into consideration.
— Alicia Allen
Asheville
Your error is in the assumption you make with item #6. It is not your yard, it is the property of the government, and you pay rent on it every year in the form of property taxes. You are expected, as any tenant is, to maintain the property you rent. Combine this with elected officials that at best can be classified as socialists, and city employees that are giddy with the overbearing power they have on the average resident, I guess you can be glad all you got was a letter.
Doubt this analogy, don’t pay your rent to the government and see what happens.