Bradley Powell, Pacific Southwest Regional Forester for the US Forest Service, announced tight new restrictions on any proposed aerial application of the herbicide hexazinone to the 11 national forests of the Sierra Nevada on 12/6/99 ... following a spring "accident" on the Stanislaus National Forest, wherein a FS-contracted helicopter directly dosed about two and a half miles of biologically significant Rose Creek with the chemical.
 
 

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Subject:      Maggie Maeve Sent me This-------
 Date:           Fri, 10 Dec 1999 07:29:40 -0500
From:     Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>

 
Lyndon, I thought you might like to read about another of your "registered" POISONS and some of the problems it caused "accidentally": News from the front lines:

Bradley Powell, Pacific Southwest Regional Forester for the US Forest Service, announced tight new restrictions on any proposed aerial application of the herbicide hexazinone to the 11 national forests of the Sierra Nevada on 12/6/99 .  In doing so, he lifted the temporary moratorium he had imposed in June following a spring "accident" on the Stanislaus National Forest, wherein a FS-contracted helicopter directly dosed about two and a half miles of biologically significant Rose Creek with the chemical.  A FS investigation, instigated by People for Healthy Forests and the Jumping Frog Research Institute, corroborated that numerous state and federal laws were violated not only in the accident, but in most if not all previous such applications of this systemic, long-lived triazine-class herbicide.

Powell's new restrictions make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for individual forests to gain permission to use this chemical in this manner.  Rather then instituting an outright ban on the practice, it is my opinon that this is a face-saving way for the FS to avoid admitting they've been wrong while essentially taking the action we demanded.  It also leaves them less open to countercharges of "arbitrary" or "capricious" regulatory decisions by those on the other side of this issue (such as DuPont).

While there are no data directly demonstrating that hex is an ED, other triazine herbicides (i.e. atrazine) have been shown to have ED effects.  In fact, the responses to a query I put to this listserve from Joe Thornton, Polly Short and Pam Hurst were of significant help in helping to persuade Mr Powell and the FS.  So - I want to thank them personally for this very significant victory, and all of you for making this virtual community possible.  The Stanislaus NF is (was?) the largest defoliation "project" of the US government since Viet Nam.

Responding to Mr Powell's decision, People for Healthy Forests issued the following press release today:

For Immediate Release, 12/9/99.

For more information, please contact:
Ms Jodi Barnett, Chairperson, PFHF (209) 536-9389
Robert Stack, Ph.D., Watershed Project Director, PFHF, (209) 728-2353

People for Healthy Forests Responds to FS Herbicide Decision

Sonora, CA.  People for Healthy Forests (PFHF) released its response today to the herbicide decision issued by Regional Forester Bradley Powell on Monday, 12/6/99.  PFHF chairperson Jodi Barnett stated that Powell's decision to impose 14 tight new restrictions on FS helicopter spraying of hexazinone was a "small step in the right direction, but it fell short of the response we had been hoping for."  Powell made these changes after reviewing a FS report on the accidental dousing of approximately two and a half miles of nearby Rose Creek and its tributaries here in the Stanislaus National Forest earlier this spring.  To date, more aerial hexazinone has been dropped in the Stanislaus National Forest than in all other eleven national forests in the Sierra Nevada combined.

Ms Barnett added, "It would appear that the new restrictions imposed by Mr Powell will make it extremely unlikely that our local officials will choose to employ this land and water-damaging practice on such a large scale.  We're hopeful that they will make a commitment to strictly comply with the Regional Forester's new directive, current FS directives, and long-standing state and federal laws."

Robert Stack, a biochemist and Director of PFHF's watershed monitoring project out at Rose Creek, stated that he felt that Powell's decision, "was rather complex and would need some time to review."  He added, "There are some issues we would still like to have clarified, and other issues that seem not to have been adequately addressed.  We're hoping that the FS will formally accept our invitation to cooperate in hosting a community forum we plan to hold this coming March, and maybe we can take a closer look at some of these remaining issues."

PFHF received a grant earlier this year from the W. Alton Jones Foundation to hold a community forum on better strategies and techniques for managing brush and other unwanted vegetation.  PFHF has specifically claimed that aerial hexazinone treatments are simply uncompatible with meeting state water quality standards, which even federal agencies are required to obey. In addition, the group believes that the practice leads to increased rates of soil erosion from steep slopes, which ends up clogging local streams with sediment in the short-term while being an unsustainable forestry practice in the long-term.  Local FS officials have claimed that herbicide treatments are necessary to kill brush and other plants in order to establish pine tree plantations, which have more commercial value to private timber companies.

PFHF, as well as other local organizations, have long asserted that the aerial application of hexazinone is the most damaging of all local herbicide practices and simply had to go.  Barnett added, "For us as a group, the key issue right now is whether the FS is sincere in wanting to cooperate in seeking creative solutions to our remaining issues.  She closed in stating, "We do, at long last, finally feel somewhat vindicated in our positions.  PFHF has too often in the past been labeled as an environmental extremist organization.  Is it really extreme to merely ask an agency of the federal goverment to simply obey the law?"

Lyndon in 1993, the EPA, FDA and the USDA agreed to find alternatives to your dangerous, "registered" pesticide POISONS - when will you begin to follow that agreement? If you would like a copy of the above announcement please contact MMacraven@aol.com.

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten