North American DMZ

In the field of ecology, who deserves a dunce cap this week? According to Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, the prize goes to the International Boundary Commission, which is now in the process of defoliating a 20-ft.-wide strip between the U.S. and Canada. The main purpose, says the commission, is to help establish jurisdiction in border disputes and plane crashes. Excluding water, the strip will extend over 2,964 miles of land.

What upsets Nelson is the fact that engineers are cutting the strip by spraying picloram, the same pesticide used by the U.S. military on the Demilitarized Zone in Viet Nam. The chemical kills sizable trees and brush vegetation for at least two years. In a letter to Secretary of State William Rogers this week, Nelson protests: "In effect, we are creating a North American DMZ, a sort of environmental disaster strip in the midst of some of the most magnificent wilderness country on earth."