About Zachary Matson

Zachary Matson has been an environmental reporter for the Explorer since October 2021. He is focused on the many issues impacting water and the people, plants and wildlife that rely on it in the Adirondack Park. Zach worked at daily newspapers in Missouri, Arizona and New York for nearly a decade, most recently working as the education reporter for six years at the Daily Gazette in Schenectady.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tony Goldsmith says

    Before you judge this product, you could do some research yourself and find that it has been used quite a bit without any known negative consequences. And the positives for the health of the lakes in which it has been used have been huge. The threat to the health of our lakes of this invasive cannot be underestimated. So far, most “remedies” have been palliative at best – harvesting, matting – and are very expensive over time. And they don’t get rid of the problem – maybe slow the spread of it.

  2. Marina @ N.M.P.L. says

    To tell the truth, I completely understand Cathy McDonald and her concern about the use of herbicide because this chemical substance has an absolutely contradictory effect. From my point of view, it is not safe to use herbicide because it has a great deal of hazardous components which can affect nature and people in a negative way. I completely support the position of Eric Siy to continue fighting use of the herbicide because it will entail only positive consequences. I think that it is a little bit reckless to apply this chemical in Lake George because negative aspects significantly outweigh positive ones and the myth of its safety has been destroyed. It should be borne in mind that the chemical glyphosate, which is used in herbicides, kills not only plants, but also bacteria.

  3. nathan says

    When has history shown any chemical shown to be safe?? think Round-up used for many decades and now linked to various cancers….lets put a new one in Lake George. so when people start dying from side effects in 30 years, guess they can sue Lake George and the ADA. Time is always showing how bad an idea it is.
    Soon there will be no fish, loons or people but chemical companies will have their profits!
    Looks like 6 members of Lake george park commission need to be voted out, they are completely and totally disregarding public opinion. residents need to file in court. I am 100% in agree, no herbicide. There is no such thing as a “safe Herbicide”, there is always long term issues and to use a barely known compound with limited years of testing In a major lake, water source that affects health, tourism to simply save a few dollars is completely wreckless.
    If this herbicide AKA PLANT POISON works for 3 years, think of it slowly spreading out and thinning in concentration, but can take decades or even longer to break down. going into the fish, birds, and then people who bath in lake or down stream, being taken up into municipal water supplies.How anyone can think this is a good idea??? read “SILENT spring”, and hand their kids and pets a glass of contaminated water.

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