The Municipal Services Committee met 03/20/202. The last item they took up was Resolution 2-R-23, the Resolution To Eliminate No Mow May. They did not have time to give this resolution the degree of attention that it deserved so they voted to hold it until the next Municipal Services Committee meeting.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for your downloading pleasure.
The resolution itself calls to eliminate No Mow May on the basis of the fact that the research study that purportedly demonstrated the benefit of the program had been retracted due to “several potential inconsistencies in data handling and reporting”. This study was authored by Israel Del Toro, a Lawrence University professor and the current District 4 alderperson (although he was not an alderperson at the time No Mow May was put into city code.)
The issues with the study were raised by Zachary Portman, a bee taxonomist at the University of Minnesota. He first laid them out in a 09/22/2020 Twitter thread and then documented them in more detail in a 10/05/2022 Medium article.
As he explained in his Medium article:
The issues boil down to two main parts:
1. The paper reports multiple bee species that simply do not occur in Wisconsin in May.
2.The paper methods state that the majority of specimens were identified by sight in the field. This is a problem because many of the listed species require a microscope to identify.”
Zachary Portman – “Documenting serious issues in a bee paper on ‘No Mow May’ And what happened when I alerted the journal” – Medium 10/05/2022 (https://zportman.medium.com/documenting-serious-issues-in-a-bee-paper-on-no-mow-may-dd9b563feac0)
In light of these issues, Portman stated in his Twitter thread, “Overall I’m not sure I would trust the bee richness measurements reported in this paper.”
Although the committee did not take up the resolution during its recent meeting, Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) did allow the members of the public who came to the meeting to make public comment.
Seven members of the public spoke, all in favor of voting against the resolution and keeping No Mow May in effect. Points that were raised included:
- No Mow May cost nothing and was an easy way to impact the local environment.
- General concerns about the climate and the environment and the need to save the planet.
- Appleton’s No Mow May is well known among environmentalists and Appleton’s image would be negatively impacted by ending it.
- The resolution was poorly written and contained “disinformation”.
One of the speakers made a statement that seemed to pertain more to the Anti- Pesticide, Herbicide, and Fertilizer Resolution that’s currently undergoing review by city staff rather than the End No Mow May Resolution. She said, “I know there’s some concern about, you know, lawn care businesses, sort of a staple of that particular season. I’ve studied in other areas in the US. Those businesses are already seasonal. We don’t try to stop the snow. They are—lawn care and landscaping is something that can be sort of redesigned. There’s other work to do.” [I interpreted that final sentence to be “There’s other work [for those businesses] to do.” But I may not have understood the point the speaker was trying to make.]
After the members of the public spoke Alderperson Siebers let Alderperson Del Toro (District 4) speak. Alderperson Del Toro wanted it noted for the record that the emails the Council had received on the matter was 8-1 in favor of maintaining No Mow May as part of the city’s code.
Alderperson Del Toro had prepared a 20 minute presentation, and Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15), the author of the resolution, also had things to say. In order to provide adequate time for a thorough discussion, Alderperson Siebers moved, seconded by Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3), to hold the resolution until the next committee meeting. The committee voted unanimously to approve the hold.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1078647&GUID=D6E9EC6C-7197-4F96-8633-DB09CF61FA11
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