By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
SEAL ROCK – A plan to spray herbicides from a helicopter on 473 acres of clearcuts in the South Beaver Creek watershed by a private timber owner is unlikely to happen anytime soon, a company representative said Tuesday.
“It’s highly unlikely we will be doing the aerial spraying at this point,” Tyrol Forfar, a consultant who represents the timber owner, said in an interview with YachatsNews. “But we are going to leave that up to the landowner to make that decision.”
Forfar is with HFI Consultants, a Battle Ground, Wash. firm that represents timber owner ANE Forests of Oregon, which is owned by Sorn Nymark of Denmark. ANE Forests of Oregon owns 21 parcels of timberland totaling nearly 3,000 acres in Lincoln County and has been operating in the state for 30 years.
“It’s definitely gotten people a little worked up,” Forfar said. “We are just waiting for the landowner to make a decision. And he’s not available right now. He’ll be made available in another five days or so.”
The aerial application of herbicides, which had been green-lighted in accordance with regulations under the Oregon Forest Practices Act, allowed for a 90-day window to spray beginning Sept. 2. The company applied to spray seven parcels.
News of the planned aerial spraying of pesticides mobilized Seal Rock Water District officials to try to stop the operation, which would occur upstream of its new raw water intake on South Beaver Creek. One of the spray ingredients is glyphosate, which is known to cause harm to aquatic and terrestrial species as well as pose a significant danger to humans.
Seal Rock is the largest water district in Lincoln County, providing water to 5,500 customers stretching from the Newport Airport in the north to Alsea Bay Bridge in the south. There are also residents in the South Beaver Creek drainage who rely on wells and spring water.
A wellspring of opposition formed and quickly spread on social media this week after word of the spraying reached the water district, its customers and others who live in the area. A petition asking Gov. Tina Kotek to stop the spray surpassed 1,500 signatures by Tuesday.
However, opponents of the aerial spraying who attended a meeting hosted by the water district Monday, learned that neither the governor nor any state agency or municipality can stop the spray. Only the owner of the timberland can do that.
“I know there’s a lot of people excited about it, but we’ll just wait until the public comment (period) is over, which is the end of this week,” Forfar said. “That was the company decision at this point. We are just consultants for him. He is not available so can’t make a decision right now.”
Forfar said Nymark had yet to be briefed about the situation.
“It would be unfortunate if he were to learn about it in the news,” Forfar said. “At this point it is just between us and the Oregon Department of Forestry.”
Forfar said he was unaware of a campaign against the spraying or the water district’s meeting, which was attended by representatives of the forestry department, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, a Lincoln County commissioner and Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis.
“I didn’t realize they had a meeting … ” Forfar said. “I didn’t realize it was getting that out of hand. We’re going to have to get something going here as far as what’s going to happen. But it’s like I said, it’s extremely unlikely that the helicopter spray is going to happen. So you can put that in the paper if you want.”
For more than a week, opponents of the spray have been listing contact information for Forfar, Nymark and ANE board members on social media and imploring people to call and ask them not to conduct the aerial spraying.
The spraying of herbicides on timberlands, whether by air or backpack, has been standard practice in Oregon dating back to at least the early 1970s, according to state forestry officials. Spraying helps tree seedlings grow in clearcut areas by eliminating competing vegetation.
Water district concerns
Seal Rock Water District general manager Adam Denlinger learned about the plan to spray Aug. 8. He sent an email to Department of Forestry’s Toledo office two days later to express concern that any drift from the sprayed areas could reach the district’s one-year-old raw water intake on South Beaver Creek.
Aerial drift of pesticide spray has been well documented to travel miles beyond its intended target and is mentioned as the biggest concern by people opposed to the Beaver Creek spraying.
Three herbicides are listed for possible use in the company’s notification to state foresters including Aquaneat, which contains glyphosate and is more commonly known as a main ingredient in Roundup, Rotary 2 SL, Oust Extra and Super Spread MSO.
“I’m trying to do the best that I can to inform our community and educate myself and others so that we understand the risks associated with these chemicals that are being used,” Denlinger told YachatsNews. “The primary chemical that is a concern for us is glyphosate, which once it is sprayed is soluble, it will make it into the ground or into the waterways, tributaries and wetlands and can make it to our intake.
“And if it makes it into our intake, it will go right through our filter screens because it’s soluble, we cannot keep it from entering the drinking water,” Denlinger said. “But we have no intentions of allowing this chemical or any chemicals to make it into our drinking water system.”
Denlinger said the district would need to set up a monitoring system throughout the watershed to detect the chemicals. If detected, the South Beaver Creek intake would be shut off immediately, and the district would switch to water supplied by the city of Newport.
But monitoring is expensive and Denlinger would want the timberland owner to pay for it, something timber companies have done in other Oregon watersheds.
Residents in the Beaver Creek area would also need to test their wells and springs and since it could take longer for the chemicals to reach those sources, monitoring would have to go on over a longer time period. Several of those residents who attended the water district’s meeting Monday expressed concern about who would pay for that monitoring.
The World Health Organization declared in 2015 that glyphosate probably causes cancer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not banned the pesticide, although a significant number of municipalities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Austin and Portland have banned its use in public parks and open spaces, according to Human Rights Watch.
The German company Bayer A.G. bought Monsanto, the maker of Roundup in 2018. In 2021, Bayer announced it would replace glyphosate in all lawn and garden products sold in the U.S. by the end of this year.
Residents worried
Willow Kasner is a fifth-generation resident of the Beaver Creek watershed. She lives on 21.5 acres near the geographic center of the clearcuts planned for aerial spraying and relies on springs for water.
a checkerboard of parcels where aerial herbicide spraying is planned.
And like much of the watershed, her land contains wetlands that are home to beaver, elk, and a range of bird species.
“And of course, Beaver Creek is critical habitat for endangered (Oregon Coast) coho salmon, lamprey and other fish,” she said.
Kasner is concerned about not only the threat drifting chemicals pose to her drinking water that she and her elderly parents rely on, but also to visitors who flock to the area for kayaking, hiking and bird watching.
“This is a major watershed that also has a state natural preserve and state parks,” she said. “There are tours through the marshland. And again, we have a protected salmon run and beaver. We have bald eagles. They will all be affected by the spray.”
While Kasner was disheartened to learn at the meeting that only the landowner has the power to stop the spraying, she hopes the opposition to aerial spraying of pesticides will continue to grow.
“If people don’t lose hope, because it’s easy to lose hope after a meeting where they say nobody can stop it, but if we can keep our momentum going and not lose faith, we can slowly work from the top down on changing regulations and laws that allow this to happen legally in the first place,” she said.
In 2017, voters in Lincoln County passed Measure 21-177, which banned aerial spraying. The ban stayed in place for 29 months before it was overturned by a circuit court judge who ruled that “preemption” enables state law to override laws passed by local government.
Those in opposition to aerial spraying will be sharing information and seeking petition signatures at the outdoor market in Waldport on Wednesday and follow up with a 3 p.m. meeting at the Waldport Community Center.
At Monday’s water district meeting, county commissioner Casey Miller said he would be adding the subject to the commissioners’ agenda Wednesday and would propose they send a letter in favor of stopping the spraying. He also suggested a follow-up meeting, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 23, could take place at the commissioners’ meeting room at the county courthouse.
The last day for public comment about the aerial spraying in the South Beaver Creek watershed is Thursday, Aug. 17. Letters can be sent to the Oregon Department of Forestry, 763 N.W. Forestry Road, Toledo, Ore., 97391; or emailed to rieghly.k.sitton@odf.oregon.gov
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
Ohhhhhhh thank you for this article!! I was there, this is a fantastic account of what occurred. Can’t quite rest easy yet, but oh this makes me feel better.
Thank you so much for this article. You have lifted my spirits. But, I also believe we need to continue to collect signatures and send messages until we hear officially from DOF that the land owner is not going to use a helicopter to aerial spray us and our water supply. Hey folks, in Denmark aerial spraying is not legal, just saying …
Letter I sent to ODF
Dear Oregon Department of Forestry:
I was disappointed to learn that you approved the pesticide spraying for https://ferns.odf.oregon.gov/…/noap/173409/Report/Summary
Timber company Weyerhaeuser owns huge swaths of timberland around Beaver Creek, where they too conduct aerial pesticide spraying.
Have you folks, or other state agencies, done environmental impact studies of the cumulative impacts of aerial spraying at the Beaver Creek riparian/watershed area? If not, why not? Has anyone done water quality analyses especially after spraying? Studies of cumulative human health impacts on water quality especially after spraying? Attached here is a copy of a recent letter from the Seal Rock Water District regarding the Beaver Creek aerial spraying plan and their concerns of “drift” over important surface water reservoirs for drinking water. Don’t you think it wise to halt the proposed aerial spraying plan until more data is assembled?
A majority of Oregonians tried to halt this practice a few years ago but the effort failed in the courts thanks to intense lobbying by the timber and pesticide industries. https://oregonwild.org/…/ballot-initiatives-halt-aerial…
I strongly urge you to halt the spray plan until further studies can be conducted.
Link to some of the important features and issues of the Beaver Creek Watershed:
https://oregonconservationstrategy.org/cons…/beaver-creek/
John Parulis
Unless Oregon changes its law on spraying, the landowner will guaranteed use aerial sprays like RoundUp. I live next to a vineyard in Amity and they have let pesticides and chemicals drift over onto our property for years. Poisoning our two spring fed ponds and poisoning me with breathing the stuff. The state simply does not care. I probably already have cancer and God knows what other respiratory issues from breathing sulfur spray drift for over 10 years. The landowners of the vineyards could care less they they are poisoning people. I have reached out to them many times. They don’t care and neither does the state. You can complain all you want but it won’t change anything. Legally they can spray all kinds of cancer-causing poison chemicals in Oregon. The governor could do something about it but won’t because the timber companies like the vineyards make a lot of money for the state so nothing is going to change. Believe me I have tried.
Thank you Garret and other journalists who were present as part of this meeting being witness to the activism to protect the people, land, water, air and wildlife in this complex ecosystem. I’m cheered by the number of people who are participating, with diverse backgrounds and knowledge, skillsets and motivation. Lincoln County voters spoke to end aerial spraying of toxins and it is clear that intention and finding ways of assisting the growth of seedling trees by cooperating with the wisdom of nature that has evolved over millenia, is an intention held by many. Our lives depend on such a shift!
Praying for the timberland owners to be sober, kind, aware, and accommodating. Meanwhile it is past time for scrutinizing and protesting how easily the Oregon Forest Practices Act squanders peoples’ and nature’s rights and relationships.
I am one of the closest ones people living near the clearcuts. My property is surrounded on two sides by the clearcut. I figured the spray was bad, but did not know that it contained chemicals known to cause cancer. I am pretty concerned especially because part of the area being sprayed is uphill from my water source. I really hope Nymark does not choose to proceed to spray arial or by hand.
So, RoundUp can be sprayed, possibly entering water supplies when the company reached a $18 billion class action lawsuit over causing various cancers and other debilitating conditions from just skin contact. So drinking it is ok. What idiots came up with this. “We’re here from the government to help you”. Riiiiiight.
Interestingly, once again, the decline of the blacktail deer and elk population goes unmentioned. Ladies and gentlemen, the spraying of the plant food the animals eat limits their population dramatically and (privately) the ODFW biologists I have discussed this with have acknowledged my sentiment and agreed with me on that. We all know these pesky critters wreak havoc with douglas fir seedlings which is the crop the timber companies are growing. It surprises me that multiple scientific studies can’t conclusively settle the argument. And fish? What fish? Funny how it always seems to come down to the dollars.
Ignorance is bliss. I’ve been a crop consultant for nearly 50 years. RoundUp (or glyphosphate) is one of the safest chemicals. First off, phosphate is a macro nutrients it is not volatile never had a problem with drift. You have to use larger droplets to get a good kill. As soon as RoundUp hits the ground it become inert. It becomes a soil nutrient. We have had trouble putting it out with ground rigs that throw up dust off the tires because the RoundUp attaches to the dust and becomes inert.
We live on South Low Road and our well is 200 feet from the clear cut. RoundUp just had a $11 billion settlement for cancer causing chemicals.
Anyone telling you it’s “inert” hasn’t done their research. $11 billion doesn’t lie
Doing research that contradicts his prejudices obviously isn’t in Chestnut’s playbook. This is straight out of the Monsanto/Bayer corporate misinformation playbook: “nothing to see here, folks” – this stuff may be in the urine/breastmilk of people anywhere near where it’s used, but it’s really good for you (a “soil nutrient”). What a load of dangerous hooey. Like you say, $11 billion doesn’t lie.
I am writing to request Oregon Department of Forestry stop the aerial spray in the Beaver Creek Natural Area. This aerial herbicide spray would cover a total of 473.6 acres, much of it alongside “Type F” streams that are important fish bearing waters and drinking water sources. The operation would also adversely impact the Seal Rock Water District water intake operations and their 5,500 water users.
The most significant resource in the Beaver Creek watershed is the threatened coho salmon which are a traditional food resource to indigenous people since time immemorial. Coho populations in the Beaver Creek watershed are considered among the strongest on the central coast of Oregon. This aerial spray is within 100 feet of type F streams (fish bearing waters) on four parcels of land which will impact endangered coho salmon.
Aerial spray results in chemical drift which poisons creeks and rivers serving Oregonians as their sole source of drinking water. Stop the aerial spray at Beaver Creek. Aerial spray is a tank mix of a chemical soup of dangerous active ingredients, additives, surfactants and “inert” (a.k.a. undisclosed) ingredients. I call upon ODF to stop allowing these chemicals to be applied by chopper over our forests, streams and communities.
The safety and health needs of the community and wildlife must be prioritized over a timber owner’s profits and convenience.
Jennifer Eisele, pesticides policy manager, Beyond Toxics, Eugene
OSU put out a wonderful Q & A on glyphosate. It can be found here:
https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/mgcoordinators/2018/10/15/glyphosphate-questions-answers/
The National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) also has a good “fact sheet” on glyphosate.
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/glyphogen.html
We received a letter from Seal Rock Water District explaining what was happening and the pending herbicide spraying in Beaver Creek watershed. In the letter it states that the district is encouraging customers to submit public comments on the FERNS website by 09/13/23. However, when you go to the FERNS website there are no clear directions on how to do this. As far as I can tell you have to have an account log in to even access the site content. Thank you SRWD! You’ve just sent all your concerned customers down a rabbit hole. So I guess I will post something here then. Yes, our family is concerned about the spraying, as should everyone. We will be drinking this toxic crap. Surely, there is something non-toxic and environmentally friendly they can spray instead? So what if it is more expensive, that is a lame excuse when you consider the consequences of using glyphosate. Thank you.