Boise city just banned this landscaping plant. Here’s why, and what to do with yours
After dozens of wildlife deaths and at least one close call for a Boise child, the city will ban a popular landscaping plant that is toxic from its roots to its berries.
Boise’s new zoning code, approved by the City Council earlier this month, has myriad updates the city says will help move it into the future, such as providing affordable housing and creating walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods. The code also contained a short line that bans Japanese, Chinese, European and hybrid varieties of yew, an ornamental shrub with dense green needles and small red berries.
Nearly all parts of the plant — including the needles, seeds and most parts of the berries — contain a toxin that slows the heart rate until death. Ingesting less than 2 ounces of yew can kill an adult.
In the last several years, hundreds of elk, deer and pronghorn across Southern Idaho have died after nibbling on the plants. In 2019, a 3-year-old Boise girl was hospitalized after eating a single berry from a yew plant in her family’s yard.
Andrea Tuning, a senior comprehensive planner for the city of Boise, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview that outlawing yew was a way of ensuring people and wildlife would be safe from yew poisoning.
The new zoning code bans yew in all parts of the city, Tuning said, as well as the wildland-urban interface, where development meets Boise’s Foothills. In the past, that’s where issues with wildlife have been concentrated as elk and deer move closer to the city during the colder months. The animals will graze on landscaping, including yew, when winter makes food sources scarce.
Tuning said the new code does not mean the city plans to punish those with existing yew plants. She said officials hope to work with homeowners to swap the toxic plant out for one that’s safer — though it’s not yet clear how the city plans to contact homeowners with existing yew plants or enforce the regulation against newly planted ones.
“We knew that wasn’t the right plant species to have near animals or children,” Tuning said. “The ideal scenario is through education we would get those replaced.”
Boise isn’t the first place in Idaho to ban yew. In 2016, Blaine County banned Japanese yew after the plant caused more than 20 wildlife deaths. The Idaho State Department of Agriculture weighed banning yew in 2017 but decided against it.
Tuning said other parts of the updated zoning code will help Boise residents better coexist with wildlife, such as requirements for bird-friendly glass that prevents window strikes and bans on spire-topped fencing that can impale animals.
She said the changes show Boise’s commitment to welcoming all residents, human and animal.
“The city was serious when we said this is a city for everyone,” Tuning said, referencing the city’s slogan.
