No Excuse!

Tall grass along a popular trail,
impossible not to brush
up against

If I were to write a book about ticks and the diseases they spread, I would include the picture to the left in the chapter titled Common Habitats of Ticks.  The caption to the picture would read: Ticks commonly occur on tall grasses such as these, waiting patiently in the questing position for a deer, dog or human to latch on to.  (Picture courtesy of a walking trail in Oakwood Lake Park, Hudson, NY, @ May 2023).  

No adult living in upstate NY can claim to be unaware of the reality and prevalence of ticks in our area, as well as the threats which they pose to human health.  The diseases ticks carry can easily spread to humans - we all know this.  We all know to be careful and tick-aware when walking in the woods. Lyme, babesiosis, and other tickborne diseases can make your life, or your child's life, miserable!  

If the City of Hudson is going to encourage people to walk the wooded trails around Oakdale where deer are not an uncommon sight, failing to maintain the trails properly to keep tall grass and weeds away from all portions of the trails seems like a game changer: YOU ARE FAILING AT YOUR JOB TO KEEP PEOPLE IN THE PARK SAFE.  FIND SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THE THREATS FROM TICKS AND HAVE THEM MAINTAIN THE PARK PROPERLY INSTEAD.

It is difficult for me to comprehend (and even to write) this: The Hudson Youth Department, located on South 3rd Street, is in charge of maintaining the trails in Oakdale Park year-round.  Yes, it's baffling, but true.  DPW mows the grass in the park but does not step on the trails. The people in charge at the Youth Department either don't do much, or any, serious trail maintenance, or they don't understand or acknowledge the threats that tall grass encroaching on a wooded trail have on human health.  Neither of these approaches should be acceptable.  

Last summer at a Common Council meeting, after I came across too much litter in the park, I asked Youth Director Liz York if she knew who performed trail maintenance at Oakdale.  She responded that her department relies on volunteers to do that work.

Tick heaven along a trail
in Oakdale Park!  Good luck NOT 
touching the grass.

It is long past time for the city to create a Parks Department that has its eyes open and, among other tasks, does not rely on volunteers to keep walking trails as free of obvious tick habitats along and in the trails.  The Youth Department is failing us in this regard.  But can we blame them?  We shouldn't be asking them to handle trail maintenance at Oakdale Park in the first place.

A few years ago I helped out at an Oakdale Cleanup Day, organized by the Youth Department.  I found two ticks on my legs, saving one to show the Youth Department Director Nick Zachos.  He identified the tick as a dog tick and told me that "they are harmless to humans."  Nothing could have been further from the truth.  

In the questing position atop a blade of grass,
hoping for some warm blood to pass by