To the editor:
We received notice from the Oregon Department of Forestry that Weyerhaeuser Timber Holdings between July 1 and Sept. 28, will spray pesticides by helicopter on more than 2,000 acres of its private timberlands in Lincoln and Polk counties. Weyerhaeuser’s notice acknowledges that many of the 27 parcels to be sprayed contain wetlands and streams, including numerous fish bearing streams and sources of domestic water.
The pesticides to be sprayed are the herbicides aminopyralid, metsulfuron methyl, clopyralid, hexazinone, imazapyr, sulfometuron methyl, and triclopyr with ester, with additives Syl-Tac and methylated seed oil. At least two of these chemicals are listed by the Oregon Department of Agriculture as statewide pesticides of moderate concern.
It is well known that pesticide spray, dust, and vapors can drift beyond targeted and buffer areas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that such drift can affect people’s health and the environment.
The National Park Service, acknowledging that airborne contaminants travel on the wind and can pose serious health threats to wildlife and humans, has found measurable amounts of contaminants in snow, water, vegetation, fish and lake sediment at all eight of the core western parks it studied, some of our most cherished public lands extending as far north as the roadless Gates Of The Arctic National Park.
The aerial spraying of pesticides is permitted by the Oregon Forest Practices Act. Nevertheless, concerned Oregonians can make their voices heard by requesting that timber owners conduct ground-based vegetation management and consider non-chemical means rather than aerial sprays.
Oregon’s climate and soils grow some of the finest, most productive forests on the planet. We support the timber industry as an integral component of Oregon’s economy and culture; we simply believe that profitable timber operations can and should be conducted in a manner consistent with public safety and a healthy, sustainable environment.
Public comments regarding Weyerhaeuser’s planned helicopter spray (NOAP # 2024-552-08643) may be submitted to Oregon Forestry Department forester Jonathan Clark before June 28 at: jonathan.clark@odf.oregon.gov
- Jon French & and Trish Ferrell-French/Waldport
There is absolutely no need or excuse for aerial spraying poisons on our watersheds or anywhere in our native forests except the outdated, wasteful, barbaric practice of clearcutting. Such strip-mining of what used to be forest is what creates the wastelands to be aerial sprayed. Stop clearcutting and no poisons needs to be sprayed, our water will stay clean, our salmon, birds, and other wildlife will not be poisoned.
In the summer of 2023, when the residents of Beaver Creek and Seal Rock questioned the state forester about compliance monitoring for “safe” pesticide application he replied that “sometimes they even go out to the site to monitor for compliance.” Sometimes . . . .
Dr. Nathan Donley, a cellular biologist, is the Environmental Health Science Director at the Center for Biological Diversity and a former OHSU cancer researcher. In his 2020 report Toxic Concoctions – How the EPA ignores the dangers of pesticide cocktails, he stated ” . . . the EPA is not only allowing some of the most harmful pesticides to continue to be used but actively facilitating their further use by approving new products with those same ingredients. Shockingly, this is even the case for highly hazardous pesticides for which the EPA has mandated use reductions or incentivized replacements. . . “
We are super concerned about spraying- especially aerial spraying along the coast. From the drop spot, the drift can cary poisons for miles! It’s not healthy for animals, plants or people. There is no such thing as a safe pesticide.
Allowing this to happen without objection means we are sanctioning poisoning our planet. Everyone should be outraged this is happening.
Not good.
Timber industry is also doing roadside spraying of toxic chemicals this summer, many of the roads are in valleys that follow streams that are at risk of drift or run off when rains return to the coast. Consider the scale of roadsides plus 2,000 acres of clear cut lands in Polk and Lincoln Counties. How many gallons of toxins are being applied on steep terrain? Land owners rarely live where they are spraying – one wonders if they’d think twice if these surface waters were their source water for personal or even municipal water systems?
Wise woman and author Rachel Carson sounded the warnings in the 1950’s about the vigorous use of toxins on living beings (human and wildlife), in and near water, or fouling the air as chemicals such as DDT were fogged over homes, schools, playgrounds with a movie showing children running alongside the machine, inhaling the fumes and being fully covered in DDT. Did you know researchers are still finding DDT and other “forever” chemicals in our streams? Is it not time to consider the long-term consequences of poisoning our environment and make better choices for brush control? Would it make more sense to feed seedlings nitrogen rich mulch or ground cover rather than exposing them to toxic chemicals that slow their growth? We like to think of ourselves as so very smart as human beings, but sometimes I wonder about that.
The county continues to spray along the river banks. They need to stop this routine behavior. Seems like no one cares about this.