Online resource helps community gardeners find safe spaces to grow on public land

FARGO — It's cold and snowy right now, but Whitney Oxendahl knows the day is coming soon when people will start looking for safe places to plant gardens in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

When they do, information collected by Oxendahl may help them make safe choices.

Oxendahl is part of Cass Clay Food Partners and its steering and advisory committee to the Cass Clay Food Commission, whose purpose is to advise area officials on ways to ensure residents have access to safe, nutritious and affordable foods.

The Cass Clay Food Commission was formed several years ago when the city of Fargo was pondering how to deal with backyard chickens.

Since then, the commission has generally tried to meet every other month with the aim of keeping local jurisdictions updated on urban agricultural issues, including things like community gardens, farmers markets and beekeeping.

Oxendahl said the steering committee she serves on began looking at the issue of chemical spraying on public land about three years ago, after a group of food organizations explored the idea of starting a community garden on some flood buyout land.

After conferring with Fargo city and parks officials, the group discovered that the land in question had been sprayed with a pesticide that would stay around for a few years, so they had to find a different spot, according to Oxendahl.

As a result, she began researching what area jurisdictions were doing as far as spraying pesticides and herbicides. She has been posting information about her research on the Cass Clay Food Partners section of the city of Fargo website, which can be found here.

Information on the website includes a snapshot of how pesticides are used on public land in the area and the various departments and agencies that do the spraying. That snapshot can be found online at bit.ly/3bWrZL6 .

Oxendahl said the information isn't intended to answer every question someone may have regarding pesticide use by local agencies. Instead, it is meant as a starting point for finding more information.

She said it is sometimes unclear whether an area is public land and she said in the case of Fargo, the planning department is a good place to go for answers.

Based on information from the city of Fargo website, some of the local agencies that oversee chemical spraying on public land include:

• Cass County Vector Control: The agency is a unit of Cass County government that works to control mosquito populations. The contact person is Ben Prather, vector director; PratherB@casscountynd.gov.
• Cass County Weed Control: The agency is overseen by a five-member board appointed by Cass County commissioners. The contact person is Stan Wolf, weed control officer; WolfS@casscountynd.gov.
• The city of Fargo: The city typically contracts out most of its weed control but does some of its own spraying. The contact person is Ben Dow, director of public works, BDow@fargond.gov.
• The Fargo Park District: The agency does much of its own weed spraying. The contact person is Dave Bietz, operations director; DBietz@fargoparks.com.

Other agencies that do chemical spraying in the area include: the West Fargo Park Department, contact person Josh Mathern, parks operations manager, josh@wfparks.org; the Clay County Soil & Water Conservation District, contact person Gabe Foltz, district technician, gabriel.foltz@clay.mnswcd.org; and the cities of Moorhead and Dilworth. The contact person for the city of Moorhead is Steve Moore, public works director, steve.moore@ci.moorhead.mn.us, while the contact for Dilworth is Peyton Master, city administrator, peyton.mastera@ci.dilworth.mn.us.