Lake Tahoe Residents Fight Forest Service Plan to Spray 2,400-3,600 Acres With Glyphosate
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 18
Lake Tahoe Residents Fight Forest Service Plan to Spray 2,400-3,600 Acres With Glyphosate
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 18
Summary
Lake Tahoe residents and local officials are organizing to block or change a US Forest Service plan to treat 2,400-3,600 acres in the basin with glyphosate and four other herbicides.
The agency says the chemicals are needed for post-Caldor fire reforestation on 11,700 acres, clearing brush before tree planting and controlling vegetation afterward; application would be by backpack sprayers, not aircraft.
Opposition has intensified because much of the proposed work sits in a watershed where snowmelt feeds tributaries into Lake Tahoe, with Mayor Cody Bass and the Tahoe regional planning agency pressing to minimize or prohibit synthetic herbicides.
Community alarm grew after reports said up to 75,000 fire-damaged acres were targeted for glyphosate spraying and that spraying had already occurred at a ski resort south of the lake.
The dispute taps a broader US fight over glyphosate, which WHO cancer experts labeled probably carcinogenic in 2015, while the EPA says it is unlikely to cause cancer.