WildEarth Guardians

Sunday, March 5, 2006
Weed Control Policy: Do No Harm - Forest Service wants ban overturned

In the 80's, the Forest Service agreed to ban all "chemical treatments" in municipal watersheds - Today the Forest Service wants the ban overturned so weed killers can be used
Contact: Sam Hitt Wild Watersheds

In my garden, the blue-green shoots of toadflax are already poking through the dried brown tangle of last year's growth. Before the cottonwoods leaf out in mid-May they will be blooming with masses of snapdragon-like creamy yellow flowers.

My grandmother called them butter and eggs, letting them spread untended through her vast perennial flower border in eastern Oregon. Botanists call them Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria genistifolia), a plant from the Mediterranean brought to North America as an ornamental many decades ago. It's one of a horde of invasive plants spreading across millions of acres of the arid West. Biologists say they pose the second biggest threat to the planet's beleaguered ecosystems after habitat loss.

The Forest Service in northern New Mexico is swinging into action to fight the invaders with a witch's brew of eleven weed-killing chemicals. Most have not been studied for their effects on the human nervous and immune systems. Also, little is known about the cumulative and synergistic effects of exposure, especially to children and the chemically sensitive. Some weed killers could contaminate drinking water supplies and harm wildlife.

Recently a hastily formed coalition of ordinary citizens, the chemically sensitive and a handful of environmental groups won a delay in the program. An internal review found that local officials had ignored the potential of the weed killer picorlam to contaminate the municipal water supplies of Santa Fe and Las Vegas, N.M., and had failed to evaluate impacts to sensitive wildlife.

For me it's deja vu all over again. More than 20 years ago I was a concerned citizen contesting the aerial spraying of insecticides by the Forest Service to control an outbreak of the western spruce budworm. By the time I joined the struggle over a million acres of northern New Mexico had been sprayed, mostly with DDT, with little to show for the effort.

We stopped budworm spraying in the mid-1980s. In a negotiated settlement the Forest Service agreed to ban all "chemical treatments" in municipal watersheds. It seemed like a no-brainer at the time. Today the Forest Service wants the ban overturned so weed killers can be used.

Those who have difficulty staying well in our toxic world did not swell our ranks back then. Today it's different. An estimated one-third of New Mexicans are made sick to some degree by exposure to minute amounts of everyday chemicals like fresh paint, perfumes, solvents, vehicle exhaust and, of course, weed killers. It's ironic that DDT was banned decades ago to protect bald eagles but today the Forest Service is rushing to spray thousands of pounds of potent weed killers that compromise the health of vulnerable citizens.

It seems obvious that a weed control program must address the causes of weedy invasion and then take preventive measures.

Preventive measures include restricting or eliminating livestock grazing during drought to maintain native grasses and create fewer patches of bare soil where weeds can gain a toehold. Closing user-created off-road vehicle trails that spread weed seeds into the backcountry and requiring firefighting equipment from other areas to be washed prior to entering weed-free areas would slow their long-distance introduction. The Russian knapweed brought into southern New Mexico by Montana firefighters would not have occurred if such prevention had been emphasized.

In addition, retaining tree canopy cover along roads and limiting soil disturbance during thinning operations and bringing back natural spring flooding that favors native cottonwoods and willows over invasive salt cedar are common sense preventive measures. Hand pulling, mowing, burning, grazing by goats and using non-toxic herbicides like vinegar are safe strategies that could effectively control the relatively small weed population on the Carson and Santa Fe national forests.

For my part, I plan to dig out my small toadflax population and plant native penstemons. They are in the same plant family as toadflax and every bit as beautiful and drought tolerant. Weed killers will not be used because I believe the fundamentals of land health and human health are the same- "do no harm." It's a principle the Forest Service would be wise to adopt.

A longtime environmental activist, Hitt is the founder of Wild Watershed. He can be reached by e-mail at sam@wildwatershed.org.

Copyright 2006 Albuquerque Journal - Reprinted with permission