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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><a href="http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/7908232/" target="_blank">http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/7908232/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="5"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">'Mother Vine' sprayed with
weedkiller</span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">MANTEO</span></st1:city><span style="font-family: Cambria;">, <st1:state w:st="on">N.C.</st1:state> —A massive
grapevine that may have been growing on <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">North
Carolina</st1:place></st1:state>'s coast since the 1500s is recovering after
being sprayed with a powerful weedkiller.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Multiple media outlets
reported the scuppernong grape vine known as the Mother Vine, located on <st1:place w:st="on">Roanoke Island</st1:place>, was sprayed by a contractor working for
Virginia-based Dominion Power.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">"From what I saw,
this was just basically a lack of common sense," said Donald Hawkins,
owner of Vineworks in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Duplin</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype></st1:place>, who was called in
to help save the vine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">The vine's crime: a single
strand about as thick as an electric wire had climbed a few feet up a nearby
power pole. So a contract employee hired to spray vines that were encroaching
on power poles sprayed it with a herbicide whose label warns against using it
on grape vines.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">"We're just sick
about it," said Chuck Penn, a Dominion spokesman. "It's something
that never should have happened."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Jack Wilson, who has cared
for the vine since he bought the property where it grows in 1957, first noticed
the vine had brown areas in late May. He said he wasn't contacted for
permission to spray on his property, where about 10 feet of a hedge has died
and three limbs of a pecan tree died.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">"It was not just this
vine," <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:city>
said. "It's the whole north end of the island."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">The contractor was trained
and licensed but made a mistake, said Dan Oberlies, a senior vice president
with Dominion. The worker was retrained in spraying procedures and in getting
permission from property owners, Oberlies said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Dominion hired an expert
from Virginia Tech to inspect the plant and recommend treatment. After a few
weeks of daily watering, regular fertilizing and pruning, Wilson and the
experts think the vine will survive. But the family won't eat or harvest the
grapes this season, just to be safe, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:city>
said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Hawkins returns this week
to do more pruning and apply more fertilizer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Historians think the vine
was alive when the first Englishmen explored <st1:place w:st="on">Roanoke
Island</st1:place> in the late 1500s. Scuppernongs are a type of native
muscadine and were the first <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
cultivated wine grapes. Cuttings from the Mother Vine have become part of a
vineyard in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Duplin</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype></st1:place> that produces a
popular scuppernong wine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</body><pre>
Robin Alton Suggs
MoonBranch Botanicals
5294 Yellow Creek Road
Robbinsville, North Carolina 28771
USA
Telephone: 828.479.2788
moonbranch@earthlink.net
www.moonbranch.com
Member:
Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project; Farm Partner
Green Products Alliance
North Carolina Consortium on Natural Medicines
North Carolina Goodness Grows/NCDA&CS
Southwestern North Carolina RC&D Council
United Plant Savers
"I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me."
-Banksy, street artist (b. 1974) </pre>