The board president of Sugarloaf: The North Shore Stewardship Association wrote a letter to the editor (August 16, 2014) that any member of the Sugarloaf leadership should be ashamed of. It is an insult to Sugarloaf, an organization that has been providing education and outreach programs in our community for many years. I am stomping on my two Sugarloaf sweatshirts in blind fury. I had not been prepared for a nasty unfounded allegation coming from this respected organization.
The Sugarloaf writer says, “…the following statements in the letter to the editor were simply not true.” and then in the following three numbered paragraphs there is not one single quote of any of these alleged untrue statements from my letter. In numbered paragraph 1 the term neonicotinoids is introduced by the Sugarloaf writer who then contends that my letter implies that Sugarloaf is using such an insecticide.
My letter never mentions these particularly nasty insecticides called neonicotinoids. I have never made any public or private statement to anybody in which I said or implied that Sugarloaf was using any insecticide in their spraying program. Could Sugarloaf provide a witness in a court of law to testify differently? Whose mind hatched this idea? Who introduced the hard to-pronounce insecticide into the discussion of my letter? Did anybody take the time to read my letter?
At every mention of the Sugarloaf spraying program I specifically included the word herbicide to make sure that I was stating only the truth of their program and not implying that they are using insecticides. As a former EPA research scientist working on the effects of pesticides on vertebrates and invertebrates I actually do understand the difference between insecticides and herbicides.
Numbered paragraph 2 begins with “Contrary to the writer’s statement” then never indicates which of my statements is referred to and introduces the term “wooded areas” which does not occur in my letter. Wooded areas can be manicured mowed treed parks, lawns with trees and similar habitat, often providing ideal conditions for non-native species to thrive. Such is the clumsy but intentional misinformation used to negate my letter.
Why did the Sugarloaf Board Chair misrepresent my letter by introducing language not in my letter and inventing a scenario in which I am described as linking a particularly nasty insecticide to Sugarloaf ’s herbicide spray program? This is personal and profoundly troubling.
Molly Hoffman
Grand Marais
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