From: EcoNet via Jym Dyer <jym@mica.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,talk.environment
Subject: NEWS & INFO: USFS Sprays Get OK
Followup-To: talk.environment
Date: 24 Jul 1992 00:24:35 GMT
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: jym@remarque.berkeley.edu

[From EcoNet ecotopia.news Conference]

USFS Sprays Get OK

A federal judge in Sacramento last month opened the door to U.S.
Forest Service herbicide spraying in California by granting the
agency summary judgment in a suit filed by anti-spray activists.

The ruling, which was appealed immediately by the citizen
plaintiffs, allows the Forest Service to begin spraying
herbicides on some 20,000 forest acres in the Sierras and
thousands more acres planned elsewhere.

Despite criticism of the Forest Service's state-wide
environmental impact statement on vegetation management from the
EPA and citizen groups, the judge accepted the Forest Service's
argument that environmental assessments on individual spray
projects would provide thorough analysis of cumulative impacts.

The judge sided with Forest Service experts concerning analysis
of so-called "inert" ingredients in herbicide formulations, but
said the agency should specifically address inerts on a project-
by-project basis.

He also found that the Forest Service's discussion of chemically
sensitive individuals was incomplete, but "reasonable."

The California Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides,
coordinating the legal appeal for other plaintiffs including the
NEC and Safe Alternatives for Our Forest Environment (SAFE), is
now fundraising for the next court battle. Contact CCAP at 879
Ninth St., Arcata, CA 95521, or by calling (707) 442-0208.

(From ECONEWS, Newsletter of the Northcoast Environmental Center, 
July 1992. Write 879 9th St., Arcata, CA 95521, or e-mail 
nec@igc.org, for a free copy.)
================================================================
=o= The attached is excerpted from an earlier ECONEWS item.
================================================================
Citizens Seek To Stop USFS Sprays

Responding to the Forest Service's resumption of herbicide use in
California, the California Coalition for Alternatives to
Pesticides (CCAP) last month asked for a preliminary injunction
to halt spraying until its case goes to trial.

CCAP filed suit last year challenging the adequacy of the Forest
Service's Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on
Vegetation Management in California, and in October filed a
motion for summary judgment. But the federal judge hearing the
case still has not ruled on the motion, filed before the agency
resumed spraying, so CCAP has gone back to court.

Already this year, thousands of acres have been sprayed with
toxic herbicides in the El Dorado National Forest, and thousands
more are slated for spraying soon in the Stanislaus, Sequoia,
Shasta and El Dorado forests. Herbicides are typically used to
stunt or kill hardwoods, brush or grass following clearcutting.

The Forest Service, according to CCAP, is using materials which
are identified by the EPA as "extremely hazardous," and some
which its own EIS says will not be used.

The citizen group also says the Forest Service's EIS does not
consider the cumulative impacts of spraying, does not reveal the
impacts of herbicide use on chemically sensitive individuals and
does not disclose and discuss the impacts of "inert" ingredients
in herbicide formulations.

The problems with the regional document are so severe that they
cannot be cured in district-level environmental assessments, CCAP
says, and any spraying following the options allowed in the EIS
would pose risks to human health.

To support CCAP's efforts in court, or for more information,
write CCAP, 879 9th St., Arcata, CA 95521; or phone (707)
442-0208.

(From ECONEWS, Newsletter of the Northcoast Environmental Center,
June 1992. Write 879 9th St., Arcata, CA 95521, or e-mail
nec@igc.org, for a free copy.)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive