Good Intentions, Bad Herbicides

As with the case of many commonly used herbicides, the herbicides triclopyr, sethoxydim and imazapyr are commonly used in the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge to control the invasive weeds that out-compete the naked stem buckwheat, which is the necessary host plant for the endangered Lange's metalmark butterfly.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife specialists wanted to decrease the growth of the invasive weeds, while not decreasing the buckwheat and had good intentions in introducing these herbicides, but did not see through the full implications of such an action.  This article describes a recent study completed that illuminated the affects of the commonly used herbicides on plant quality, thus also indirectly the food source for the endangered butterflies in the East Bay.  While the correlation is not exactly known yet, this illustrates another example of how good intentions, through seemingly quick fixes in science, have had a negative outcome for the biological factors involved.