WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Cibola National Forest to Spray Ten Herbicides on Public Lands

Conservationists Call for Non-Toxic Alternative
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

SANTA FE, N.M. - The Cibola National Forest is proposing to spray highly toxic herbicides to control non-native vegetation across more than 23,000 acres, a move that will be contested by WildEarth Guardians, the group says. Instead, WildEarth Guardians will ask the Cibola National Forest to consider an alternative plan and an Environmental Impact Statement for treatment of invasive plants that does not involve any poisons, but rather relies on the physical removal of invasive vegetation.

The Forest Service proposed action calls for using ten different herbicides, in a combination of ground spraying and other mechanical and manual techniques beginning in the fall of 2009. Affected Ranger Districts include the Mt. Taylor, Magdalena, Mountainair, and Kiowa/Rita Blanca National Grasslands. The herbicides proposed for use include 2,4,D, picloram, clopyralid, glyphsphate, dicamba, metsulfuron, ticlopyr, imazapyr, imazapic, and sulfometuron.

“Applying poisons on our public lands is not a long-term solution to the problem of improper land management,” said Bryan Bird, WildEarth Guardians’ Public Lands Director. “Herbicides only treat a symptom of the problem, he added. “The real problem is the degradation of landscapes, through grazing, off highway vehicle use, and road as well as trails,” said Bird. “If these basic problems are not addressed, we will continue to see invasions of exotic plants and have to repeat treatments.”

The new proposal comes in the wake of a growing controversy about illegal or inappropriate use of pesticides on National Forest lands in the Southwest. Doug Parker, pesticide coordinator and assistant director of forestry and forest health for the agency’s Southwestern Region, filed a whistleblower complaint in which he claimed there is a ‘‘systemic problem’’ when it comes to proper pesticide use in the Southwestern Region. In particular Parker criticized the Cibola national forest for allowing aerial spraying without any environmental analysis.

WildEarth Guardians believes the extent of herbicide spraying will require a thorough environmental impact statement prior to initiating action, the group argues that non-chemical alternatives are the best long-term solution. In asking the Forest Service to consider and develop a non-chemical alternative, WildEarth Guardians notes its success in completing mechanical non-native removal projects across New Mexico including the Santa Fe River, and the Rio Puerco south of Cuba, New Mexico.

“The key to success is just as much about restoring native habitat as it is removing the invasives,” said Bird. “There is no doubt that we have a major problem with the non-natives degrading ecosystems in New Mexico and across the West. But we don’t believe approaches that rely on the intensive application of chemicals are even a temporary solution.”