This commentary is by Sophie Bowater of Middlesex, founder of Peace of Mind Animal Wellness.
Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These are the big three foundational elements of inorganic fertilizer.
Nitrogen is essential for the formation of protein in plants, and phosphorus allows for the use and storage of energy, including the all important process of photosynthesis. Finally there is potassium, which helps strengthen the plants’ ability to resist disease and plays an important role in the yields and quality of crops.
Some of the most common forms of organic fertilizer are manure, compost and rock phosphate. When we want to fertilize our gardens in the spring, many of us go out and buy bags of soil that include some form of these fertilizers in it.
We don’t typically go out and purchase bags of rotting animal carcasses.
Apparently there is a new idea emerging on how we can fertilize our gardens, and it is coming from the unlikeliest of sources: the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.
Last week during a hearing in the House Committee of Natural Resources on bill H.411, which seeks to ban the wanton waste of wildlife, a bizarre new idea was brought forth during testimony by the new commissioner of Fish & Wildlife, Christopher Herrick.
Before revealing his breakthrough farming concept, let me explain the bill. Wanton waste is the killing of wildlife for reasons other than for meat, fur, hide, feathers or taxidermy. According to a retired Vermont game warden, it’s a big issue out in the field. The bill has fair exemptions, including a provision to allow the killing of wildlife in defense of property or person. In other words, there are few reasons you can’t kill wildlife, even with a ban on wanton waste.
Now back to the new big idea. During Herrick’s testimony on H.411, a ban on wanton waste, he insisted on adding a provision to the bill if he was going to support it. In addition to the reasons already listed on why someone can kill wildlife — meat, fur, hide, feathers and taxidermy — Mr. Herrick added fertilizer.
The commissioner, apparently in his love of gardening and his newfound power of having control over the public trust of Vermont’s wildlife, has decided to add the ability to kill wildlife for fertilizer.
If this weren’t true, it would be laughable. In reality, it is an attempt to water down the wanton waste legislation. It seems that our new Fish & Wildlife commissioner has quickly succumbed to the hunting and trapping lobbyists that roam the halls of the Statehouse.
Herrick wanted to be sure that there was a way to not upset the status quo, so he provided a loophole in H.411: the word fertilizer. So now when someone kills a crow, coyote, or anything they want for fun or hatred, they need only say it was to fertilize their garden, and it would be legal.
As far as “fertilizers” go, this one really stinks.
