Letters: Spraying sand dunes is a waste of time and money

I live on the coast. In front of my house are dunes covered mostly in muehlenbeckia, rushes, ferns, a few flaxes and small native shrubs.

Growing through these are some non-native grasses, a wild sweet pea and a German ivy.

These are fast-growing weeds and die down in the summer when it is dry.

However, several times a year, the council employs a contractor to spray vast areas of these dunes.

In my view, it is a fruitless exercise. The weeds always return, the natives which have been here for thousands of years, get knocked back.

The spray kills little skinks on which the kingfishers and other birds feed.

The spray runs into the sea, where it is toxic to fish. The spray kills any small natives trying to self seed.

Spray and labour are expensive and I object to money from my rates being used for this useless, wasteful and damaging practice. (Abridged)

A M Gribben
Mount Maunganui

Climate change protest

Having seen footage of the Wellington climate change protest on TV in which several hundred people participated, I have some simple questions.

How did they all get to the protest especially as some participants came from out of town? Walking? Cycling, in which case where did they leave their bikes? Public transport? Chances are that plenty of private, fossil-fuelled vehicles were involved.

Do these people also regularly replace their electronic devices, each time costing the environment?

Do they wear natural product clothing or synthetic, chemically manufactured clothing? I saw plenty of the latter in the film footage.

Do they drink fizzy drinks and juice from plastic bottles or cans? Do they buy bottled water? Is their food made from scratch, no convenient packages and cans?

The list could go on.

Yes, climate change is a real and serious problem but these protesters should practise what they preach, start small by managing their own personal carbon footprints, provide viable solutions and publicise these instead, and teach others.

Let's see positive footage of what can be done and is being done rather than the negative images protests suggest.

Paddi Hodgkiss
Rotorua