10/22/2025
Falmouth is facing a real watershed moment | Opinion
pressherald.com/2025/10/20/falmouth-is-facing-a-literal-watershed-moment-opinion
Susan Hayhurst, MS, DVM, a resident of Falmouth, is staff veterinarian at the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland.
We are facing a watershed moment, literally and figuratively, in Falmouth and Greater Portland. After the Falmouth Town Council passed an ordinance to limit pesticide and fertilizer use, the ordinance faced pushback; a referendum to repeal it will be on the ballot in Falmouth this fall.
It’s important for our communities, our pets and our waterways to keep the pesticide and fertilizer restrictions in place (and vote “No” on Article 1). In 1962, Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring,” a call to action to save bird populations, which were being devastated by a pesticide that left egg shells weak. She called for us to stop using DDT, and today, we hear birdsong and see bald eagles nesting.
Now, we are again being asked a similar question: do we want our children and grandchildren to see monarchs and other butterflies in the future? I spoke with a monarch researcher last spring, and he told me that — despite worrisome numbers facing monarch
1/2 populations — he firmly believes that they will be resilient and not go extinct but if, and only if, we do not insist on continuing to spread the chemicals that we know are devastating
pollinators.
Just like our predecessors made the hard decision to ban DDT and preserve birdsong for our generation, we now face the decision of whether to leave future generations a legacy of
butterflies and other pollinators in their future.
The question also affects our health and our pets’ health. In Falmouth and Greater Portland, our coastlines are the gems of our communities. We like to swim, fish, collect clams and eat
shore to table seafood at local establishments. Limiting herbicides and pesticides in our coastal communities and the watersheds that flow to them helps keep these shorelines
healthy and safe for our families (and the organisms that live here, too).
I am a veterinarian and a former marine biologist who has studied water quality and its impacts on living things (as a proud graduate of UMaine’s marine science graduate
program). I know that what we put in our yards makes its way to our pets, our waterways, our coastlines and ultimately our bodies and our children’s bodies.
These chemicals persist in the environment and make their way up the food chain to us. And they affect our pets. There are studies that show this, and also show that our pets are likely
sentinels for our own health and the impacts these chemicals have on us.
When I recently asked colleagues in veterinary medicine, they agreed that limitations on pesticides and fertilizers are important to protect our pets (and ultimately ourselves — since
we are exposed to the same things — a “One Health” concept.)
We have such beautiful gardens here in southern Maine. I love to see the landscaping in my neighbors’ yards. Naturally, we like what we are used to and what our parents and
grandparents taught us. But sometimes, when we have new data and information about the risks, it’s time to do the hard thing and make a change.
Although Rachel Carson and her writings faced pushback and controversy, her call to action prevailed and the banning of DDT is why we hear birdsong today. Our amazing garden
centers can educate us about how to change, and sell alternatives that can continue to keep
our yards beautiful.
It’s natural to want beautiful and vibrant yards and flowers, but I truly believe we can still do that with these changes. It’s not easy, but we can adapt. Doing so — being brave and making this change — is a legacy we can give to our pets, our children and our grandchildren.
The Portland Press Herald
It’s important for our communities, our pets and our waterways to keep Falmouth’s pesticide and fertilizer restrictions in place.
