To the editor:
My husband and I live between Waldport and Newport in the woods behind the gorgeous vacation community of Seal Rock. South Beaver Creek Road is a well-kept local secret, about five miles of small farms, country homes, and so much beautiful scenery and wildlife. It is our two acres of heaven. We were so fortunate to find our dream home in 2017.
There is a planned aerial spraying event planned for a three-month period, starting on Sept 2. and running until Nov. 30. The landowner has a permit to spray several herbicides to kill the noxious weeds and competition plants in preparation to replant the clearcuts. Eight parcels totaling 473 acres are in this round, with more to come all over the area here.
This is very close to where we live, threatening our home, many of our neighbors, and the entire water system for Seal Rock Water District. Not to mention the plants, animals, birds, fish that we are famous for here.
We use a rainwater/cistern water system, installed at great effort and expense. If our house gets hit by aerial spray we will lose our entire water storage, which we can’t afford to dump and buy from any water delivery company.
We are about one mile from the nearest parcel of clearcut, but our neighbors are right under it. Their wells will probably be contaminated, their animals are in danger, and the state notification system just tells us the night before it will happen. No one can react that fast in any real way.
Shockingly to me, this is all legal. I am overwhelmingly concerned about the potential effects to our health and destruction of wildlife in our area.
When we moved here in 2017, we knew we had a lot to learn about living in the woods. This is our idea of paradise. We never dreamed we would have to protect ourselves from poison coming from the air, or through the ground water, and that the law would protect the person(s) spraying. Please do whatever you can to delay, or even better stop this before it happens.
I cannot believe this can’t be stopped somehow by someone. We will not rest, not will the other people we know.
Not anti logging, just anti spraying.
— Laura Gill/Waldport