© 2024 | Jefferson Public Radio
Southern Oregon University
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541.552.6301 | 800.782.6191
a service of Southern Oregon University
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

19 Environmental Groups Join Push For Stricter Oregon Pesticide Spraying Rules

The view from a clearcut on Seneca Jones timber land, the subject of a pesticide spray investigation, with the community of Tiller, Oregon, below.
The view from a clearcut on Seneca Jones timber land, the subject of a pesticide spray investigation, with the community of Tiller, Oregon, below.

Ever since residents in a Southern Oregon community near Gold Beach claimed weed killer sprayed from a helicopter poisoned them in late 2013, the Eugene-based environmental group Beyond Toxics has been pushing hard for stricter rules governing aerial spraying.

Now it has company.

Nineteen environmental groups signed a letter this week urging Oregon legislators to adopt tighter rules for spraying weed killer on the state's forests. The groups range from local watershed alliances to Oregon Wild and the Sierra Club.

“We have groups who care about wildlife. We have groups that care about ecological health in general. We have groups that care about air quality. And all of these groups help us explain why this practice is so damaging," Beyond Toxics Director Lisa Arkin said.

The environmental groups are asking the legislature for the following:

A group of legislators led by Senator Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, has been drafting a bill expected to address the same targets outlined by environmental groups. In May, following the Oregon Department of Agriculture's investigation into the Gold Beach incident and subsequent revelations about the state's flawed response, Dembrow began a series of hearings as chair of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

Forest herbicide spraying has been a contentious issue in Oregon for decades. Timber companies spray after logging to reduce competition for the next crop of trees and spraying from helicopters is more efficient than weeding or spraying by hand. But environmentalists have argued for years that Oregon's regulation of the practice is more lax than other states, and residents in rural communities across the western half of the state have made claims about the health effects of herbicide exposure.

Timber industry groups have been vocal against efforts to increase regulation, claiming the problems alleged by environmental groups are those of perception rather than actual risk to human health or the environment.

"It seems like the efforts right now are searching for solutions when we haven't really identified a problem that's out there, other than perception," Scott Dahlman, executive director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, said earlier in January. "We just want to make sure we're not taking Draconian steps to address something we haven't even identified yet."

Others within the timber industry have expressed support for new rules, saying that most herbicide applications pose no threat, but that the current system doesn't do enough to address spraying that does become problematic.

Copyright 2015 Oregon Public Broadcasting