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Why pick on broom?

Editor: A couple of thoughts on the unhappiness that Scotch broom seems to cause on the Coast. I agree there are areas that appear to be overtaken with broom.

Editor:

A couple of thoughts on the unhappiness that Scotch broom seems to cause on the Coast. I agree there are areas that appear to be overtaken with broom. The thing is, broom is one of many opportunistic plants that move into sunny areas where the ground has been disturbed by humans, such as along roadways, construction sites and ploughed fields. If you venture a few feet off the roadway into the forest, you will not find broom. Most plants that grow along roadways and in disturbed soil are nitrogen fixers, bringing nitrogen to the surface layer of soil that is typically nitrogen poor. It is nature’s way of creating more fertility in the soil after it has been disturbed.

The negative attitude toward this plant seems to have reached extreme proportions, and I don’t see why it is considered such a blight on the landscape, considering it was we humans that brought it here and caused it to find a place to grow in the first place.

When blooming, I think it is quite beautiful and the plant itself is quite graceful. I agree that we shouldn’t encourage it to grow in areas that are useful in some other way, but I think we might as well enjoy it since it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. It has been growing on the Coast for at least a century and does offer something pretty to look at along the roadside.

I think there are many more urgent problems to be concerned with than the broom growing in the ditch.

Carol MacArthur, Madeira Park