To the editor:
There are two serious issues that Oregon residents, especially those in Lincoln County, are being faced with – major destructive logging and aerial and ground spraying of an extremely toxic herbicide after logging.
We take great pride in our pristine and beautiful forests, yet our forests are being plowed down by private and public corporations in the name of money. Also, nothing is being done to terminate the use of 2,4-D, sprayed after logging, a component of the famous toxic Agent Orange herbicide used in the Vietnam war causing absolute devastation to both people and land.
It has been banned in Vietnam and other countries and yet Oregon has allowed its use knowing its injurious effects. It is known to fall in the class of compounds that are endocrine-disrupting chemicals mimicking or inhibiting body hormones such as the thyroid which can severely affect the development of the brain. It has been proven to cause cancer and a multitude of illnesses such as thyroid disorders, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and sarcoma. It has been documented that it also causes birth defects. The International Agency for Research on Cancer stated that 2, 4-D causes damage to human cells and in many studies has cancer in laboratory animals.
We are sick of being sprayed with poisons that seep into the soil and into our various water systems which provide us with drinking water. Water becomes tainted with the herbicide and is detrimental to one’s health. It also affects our wildlife and pollutes the ground.
Logging needs to be reduced as we are experiencing increased global warming. We need our trees, especially the older ones that sequester large amounts of carbon in the soil. When logged, the trees release large amounts of carbon into the air, adding to the climate crisis we are currently experiencing.
We are encountering increasing negative effects every year with temperature spikes, fires, and droughts. Monoculture forests present dangers to the diversity of our environment and are vulnerable to disease. Logging can reduce the amount of water held in watersheds causing a decrease in dry season water availability of which we are seeing more drought periods. Older trees release oxygen and remove carbon, keep the soil in tack, and provide moisture as well as healthy habitats for all wildlife.
I see truckloads of timber each day on the highways and wonder with climate change happening why we are not saving our trees that serve as carbon capture entities. Each time major logging occurs, there is released heavy amounts of carbon in the atmosphere. This state needs to come up with ways to stop global warming, not add to it.
The Federal Clean Air and Water Act should preempt the state law that permits spraying the 2,4-D toxic herbicide.
Recently we experienced ground spraying in Beavercreek which has left the water supply in dire straits. Now we are experiencing logging and spraying in the Waldport area near the drinking water sources. The companies state that they spray a certain distance from water sources such as rivers, streams but the dangerous spray drifts in the air and can travel in the groundwater. There are other ways to control weeds from growing. Biodegradable ground covers, manual removal by using goats or people power can be utilized. We know that sprays are easier and cheaper, but the long haul shows we are destroying our land and animals.
We must prohibit this mass bombardment on our people and land for the sake of profit. We voted to ban spraying, it passed but was overturned on appeal.
The people of this county and state for that matter, deserve clean untainted drinking water, land to grow food and forests that are not polluted. We demand to stop this spraying. We demand to protect our forests from noxious chemicals and to keep providing oxygen and sequestering carbon.
We are sick of being sprayed with poisons that seep into the soil and into our various water systems. As it stands, people flock to the coast, thinking the air and water are clean and unadulterated. This is not true. We must unite to stop this abomination to our land and water.
- Holly Brandwen/Yachats