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For the past five years, Mountain View city staff used the tree-killing herbicide, imazapyr, to control weeds around public trees. Now over 30 shade trees are dead and removed, approximately 150 more are deteriorating, and imazapyr has been detected in every soil and tree-tissue sample tested.
For those who walked beneath these trees, rested in their shade or watched birds in their branches, this loss is personal. These trees were part of our parks, sidewalks and gathering places, where children play, dogs sniff and neighbors meet. We rely on city staff to care for these precious spaces, but their practices appear to have directly led to harming the trees they were entrusted to protect.
The city has stopped using imazapyr, begun treating affected soil and promised to replace removed trees with native species. But it has not committed to halting the use of herbicides generally. Instead, staff are reviewing other weed-control products and promising to reduce or eliminate pesticide use “as feasible.” Replacing one herbicide with another runs the risk of damaging our trees in the future.
Our community deserves a stronger commitment. We should not have to accept contaminated soil and dead trees as the price of controlling weeds.
On September 27, five organizations – GreenSpacesMV, Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning, Livable Mountain View and Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter – submitted a letter asking City Council for an immediate moratorium on herbicide use in parks, street tree wells, medians and other publicly maintained landscaped areas until the city comprehensively updates its policy and practices.
The response, sent by a staff member on behalf of the City Council, said the city would “review and consider” the concerns. No commitment to a moratorium. No timeline.
We asked for protection, not acknowledgment. The city must act now.
The city’s own Integrated Pest Management policy, adopted in 2002, requires reducing or eliminating chemical pesticide use wherever feasible and practical. It permits chemicals only to prevent unacceptable health risks, economic loss or the development of unsafe conditions – or when non-chemical methods have proven ineffective. What justified using a tree-killing herbicide around our public trees? What non-chemical methods were tried, and where is the evidence that they failed?
Staff approved the use of imazapyr in 2021 despite warnings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2006 about harm to plants outside treatment areas and more than 300 tree deaths following its use in Milwaukee County in 2017.
Annual training, professional product reviews, county inspections and reports in 2024 of hundreds of trees harmed in Ventura County did not stop its use in Mountain View. Residents deserve an explanation: How did this decision meet the city’s own policy, and why did repeated reviews fail to protect our trees?
Our neighbors already show how to do better. Palo Alto has not used pesticides on public trees since 2012. The Menlo Park City Council voted in 2017 to eliminate herbicide use from all city parks. Mountain View can use mulch, remove weeds by hand or with tools, and tolerate some weeds as part of a healthy landscape. A few weeds should never cost us our trees.
The City Council must adopt a moratorium suspending routine herbicide use while it fixes its policy and practices. Narrow exceptions could address documented ecological or public health needs, with each exception required to be justified and publicly reported.
The council must set a firm deadline for a policy overhaul with meaningful community participation. The policy must make non-chemical methods the first choice and pesticides a last resort. It must prioritize trees and the environment, strengthen scientific review, establish clear responsibility for staff and contractors, and require monitoring after applications. Evidence of potential harm must trigger immediate suspension of a product.
The city must also release pesticide application records and use reports now, publish ongoing reports online, and report regularly to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
Replacing the removed trees with native trees is welcome. But our children will grow up before those saplings can replace the shade and habitat of many of the trees we lost.
This landscape belongs to all of us. We have every reason to be angry and insist on change. We should not have to wonder whether the city’s next choice of weed killer will kill more of our trees. The council must adopt a moratorium now.
Tracy Ferea and Rashmi Sahai are Mountain View residents and leaders of GreenSpacesMV. Shani Kleinhaus is the environmental advocate for the Cupertino-based Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance.
The Mountain View Voice accepts Guest Opinion pieces from readers on matters of local public interest. The Voice strives to publish a diverse array of viewpoints. To find out more about submitting a Guest Opinion piece, send an email to editor@mv-voice.com.
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