|
Last Updated:
Feb 7th, 2007 - 17:28:25
Affiliates
Powells.com
Favorite Links
American Friends Service Committee
Friends Committee on National Legislation
National Catholic Reporter
British Broadcasting Company
The Guardian
Christian Science Monitor
LA Times
SF Gate
Oregonian
The Register Guard
Environmental News Network
Sojourners
Orion
Swans Commentary
Federation of American Scientists
Car Free Times
Indy Media
AlterNet.org
Common Dreams
The Nation
Utne Reader
Eugene Weekly
Willamette Week
Portland Tribune
Bitter Lemons.org
The Travels of our First Webmaster
|
|
|
Voices of the Northwest
Some Inconvenient Truths Too Close to Home
The loss of the native vegetation on the forest floor means that wildlife is stressed and often starves.
By Reida Kimmel
Posted on Feb 7, 2007 |
Email this article
Printer friendly page
|
Many of you have heard me talk about the use of herbicides in commercial forestry. Let me briefly review the story. Newly replanted clearcuts are aerially sprayed to kill not just invasive alien species but also native shrubs and hardwoods that might grow from stumps and compete with the plantation firs. Then the planted area is sprayed again and again, generally from the ground, and as often as four times, until the monocultured trees are large enough to shade out any other vegetation.
The chemicals used, “Garlon”, “Assault”, “Arsenal” and “Oust”, among others, have been documented to have detrimental effects on health and the environment and are often used in combination when applied. No one really knows what toxicity results from the synergism of the chemicals. Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) has a website which will enable you to access the scientific information about herbicides, www.pesticide.org.
Perhaps all this seems a bit remote or inconsequential in our troubled times. But it is a fact that in 2006 the Oregon Department of Forestry received spray notifications for almost eight hundred thousand acres of private forestland in the state. Of this, 74,468 acres were in Lane County, 65,914 acres were in Lynn County, 24,577 acres were in Lincoln County, and 16,545 acres in were in Benton County. Not surprising is the horrible figure for Douglas County, where 321,782 acres were sprayed last year. If you would like to see the maps showing the location and types of forestry spraying, go to Forestland Dwellers www.forestlanddwellers.org. There’s a lot to look at!
The Department of Forestry does not require that adjacent landowners be notified of timber companies’ plans to spray. Citizens must request and pay for that information. It is perfectly legal to spray adjacent to schools, hospitals and nursing homes. Between 1990 and 2006, 174 spray notices were filed for an area within one mile of Mapleton School. In the same time frame, 74 notifications were filed for within a mile of Twin Oaks [District 4J] our local Elementary School, 275 notifications for Marcola Elementary, and 128 notifications for Triangle Lake, a school that takes its drinking water from a spring. When brush from sprayed areas is burned, the smoke, containing phosphene gas, is toxic. Spring and fall, rural residents experience air pollution from slash burning just as Eugene residents are exposed to field burning smoke in the summer.
The loss of the native vegetation on the forest floor means that wildlife is stressed and often starves. Timber companies have the legal right, no notification required, to spread deer repellent and rodenticide on their lands. These products can contain deadly amounts of manganese and zinc. The denuded, generally hilly, land is subject to erosion, and soil and water quality deteriorate. Timber companies “fertilize” their acreage with commercial fertilizers and waste products that can contain toxic levels of metals.
At present, herbicide spraying is not permitted on National and BLM forests, but both agencies have recently made attempts to change this almost thirty year-old ruling. This would be a true ecological disaster, as the public lands now serve as refugia, providing the biodiversity essential for our forests to heal themselves.
Something must be done to stop the chemical assault on our natural environment. The time is right with a change in the power structure in our legislature. Oregon Toxics Alliance is pushing for no spray zones around schools and health care facilities. Paul Holvey and Floyd Prozanski are friendly to legislation that would result in more earth friendly forestry policies. But time is getting short and the legislature has a busy schedule. Please do your part now, and contact your legislators expressing a concern for our forests and the need to curb this chemical warfare against the forces of nature and us.
Copyright © 2007 by Reida Kimmel
Reida Kimmel is a nature writer, board member of the Eugene Natural History Society and an organic gardener/small farmer in the rural backwaters we know and love as Fox Hollow, southwest of Eugene, Oregon. She also is a member of Forestland Dwellers, a forest practices reform group. Visit more Reida Kimmel articles at West By Northwest.org:
The Year of the Predator
Spring into Summer by Reida Kimmel
Fish Story by Reida Kimmel
To Spray More or Not to Spray More, That Is the BLM Question by Reida Kimmel
Aerial Pesticide Assault: The Never Ending Story? by Reida Kimmel
Of Forests and Frogs by Reida Kimmel
The Last Wilderness: Can the Whales Be Saved in Time? by Reida Kimmel
Frog Season by Reida Kimmel
Catkins, Mushrooms and Water
Spring, Birds, Frogs and West Nile Virus by Reida Kimmel
© Copyright 2000-2006 by West By Northwest.org
Top of Page
untitled
|
|
|
