Today's Doofus is from Devon, England - but I'm not sure who should get the award.
A workman killed hundreds of protected rare orchids with poison after mistaking them for weeds.
The flowers died days after the contractor used herbicide to rid a grass verge of brambles and gorse.
Not realising the colourful flowers were nine species of rare orchids, he doused them with the toxic spray.
Horrified ecologists monitoring the site in Devon spotted the 'disaster' when they were confronted by wilting, brown flowers.
They fear the population could take another 15 years to re-establish.
The Highways Agency put the blunder down to 'over-spraying' of the verge, by the A38 near Chudleigh.
Ecologist Michel Ragody Hughes said: 'The level of ignorance involved is appalling. It should never have happened.'
My question: if they were so rare, why were no signs erected to warn workers and the like not to use pesticide near them? Perhaps the ecologists are the real Doofi here!
Peter
1 comment:
In the States, patches of rare plants are not marked because if you do, people come and dig them up. Especially orchids, which have a very high black-market value. If you are spraying in the area (crop protection), you have to call the state, give them your applicator's license number to show that you are a legitimate business, and they'll tell you what areas to avoid. I used to have to do that from time to time.
LittleRed1
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