Another reason why you don't harvest off the sides of the road...

Pretty colors... but with a nasty reason.

 

The upper picture is pretty.  At least the leaves of the trees are.  The beautiful transition of fall!

 

But the reason they're changing isn't because of natural reasons.  And I'm mad as a hornet about it!

 

About two weeks ago, a truck drove through our neighborhood, spraying something on the sides of the road and onto the trees near the roads.  This is what they look like now.

 

These used to be a small berry patch with bright green leaves...

The trees weren't the only ones to suffer.  Our Sumac and berries (anything with broad leaves) suffered from the results of chemical sprays.

Now, I would love to know a few things. 

I can understand why you would keep the foliage back away from the roads in the city.  We mow around the edges of our houses and farms all the way down the roads here in the country.  So why do they need to spray chemicals around our homes and animals? 

Also, this is the time of year when the plants are going to naturally lose their leaves and it'll clear the sides of the road.  So whoever authorized this just spent a lot of money to defoliate trees who were going to lose their leaves in a few weeks anyway. 

So how much sense does doing something like this make?  Not only do you poison the plants but you waste money on something that happens naturally (since, as far as we can see, the grass and other small leafed plants who grow along the roads aren't effected).  Someone really needs their head examined.

But as for the rest of us, this is yet another reason I would recommend against harvesting anywhere near the sides of the roads.  This may dissapate but I can't guarentee it as I don't know the chemicals.

Here's hoping this doesn't happen to your area.