Tahoe National Forest Withdraws Cottonwood Herbicide Project

WE WON! The Cottonwood decision was withdrawn!

FIG and other Conservation groups celebrated a victory in their nine year battle to restrain the Tahoe National Forest from spraying herbicides on native vegetation in public lands. In a letter dated May 4^th, Sierraville District Supervisor Sam Wilbanks issued a statement declaring that he has withdrawn his Record of Decision made in February 2005 on the Cottonwood Fire Vegetation Management Project EIS. The Record of Decision authorized the application of herbicides to thirteen thousand acres of native vegetation that reestablished after the “Cottonwood Fire” near Loyalton, which burned over 46,000 acres in 1994.

The Court later in 2007 ruled that the Forest Service was obligated to pay FIG attorney fees and certain court costs of the case.

With the Record of Decision now withdrawn, it remains to be seen if the Forest Service will pursue the issuance of a new decision with the required additional public and environmental review. The conservation coalition does not intend to drop their lawsuit until gaining assurances that their full suite of complaints with respect to the Cottonwood area is adequately addressed by the Forest Service.

We will be keeping a watchful eye on Cottonwood to make sure that the Forest Service does not interfere with the ecosystem continuing to restore itself naturally without herbicide spraying.

Background

Forest Issues Group (FIG), along with the California Indian Basketweavers Association, California Native Plant Society, Sierra Club, Sierra Foothills Audubon Society, and South Yuba River Citizens League sued the Tahoe National Forest (TNF) over its decision to spray 13,500 acres with herbicides to accelerate conifer growth in an area near Loyalton burned in 1994.

The spraying is unnecessary, because the trees planted after the burn are out-competing the shrubs and other vegetation. Use of herbicides now will set the clock back just when the area is becoming the most beneficial for deer, songbirds, and a variety of other animals and plants.

Successful efforts in the past have persuaded the courts to stop the needless spraying of 650,000 gallons - 2,500 tons - of poisonous chemicals on 13,500 acres of the TNF.

But each time the Forest Service has come back with a new purpose and need, with the same old justifications “supported” by unsound science. We based its latest appeal on expert testimony and on-the-ground field work to prove the project is unnecessary. We showed that the conifers are growing just fine without use of toxic chemicals.

Consider these cumulative impacts:

• The Forest Service is currently proposing other unnecessary herbicide projects for the Sierran forests - forests which already experience the highest herbicide use in the country.
• Airborne drift contamination from millions of pounds of Atrazine sprayed in the Central Valley appears to be a major factor in declining mountain yellow-legged frog populations in high country lakes and streams.
• Sierra Pacific Industries heavily uses herbicides on its checkerboard Tahoe lands.