Not just cutting: A routine part of logging operations is spraying herbicide on private forest land to reduce vegetation competing with new forest, making trees grow faster. This helicopter is spraying near Days Creek, a tributary to Woods Creek, in the Oregon Coast Range. Photo courtesy Beyond Toxics by Francis Eatherington
By Chuck Thompson. July 6, 2020. On an October morning in 2013, a Gold Beach, Oregon, woman named Kathryn Rickard was puzzled by the continuous droning of a helicopter passing at low altitude over her neighborhood. She stepped outside to assess the commotion.
“Immediately I was assaulted with a horrible, horrible smell,” Rickard later told Jefferson Public Radio. “My sinuses were burning, my eyes were burning, I got a rash all over my arms. I felt sick to my stomach.”
Rickard had been hit with a chemical herbicide being sprayed over a nearby logging operation.
Almost seven years later, Rickard’s experience and subsequent complaints has led to the Forest Aerial Spray Bill (SB1602), passed by the Oregon Legislature in an overwhelming bipartisan vote on June 26, 2020.
Once signed into law by Governor Kate Brown, the forest bill will strengthen the state’s aerial pesticide spray regulations.
Key provisions of the new forest bill include expanding no-spray buffer zones around fish and drinking water sources; making no-spray buffer zones around homes and schools five times wider, from 60 to 300 feet; and requiring companies to give 24-hour notice to nearby residents before spraying operations begin.
As important, the new law provides a foundation for broader reforms to the outdated Oregon Forest Practices Act, according to the Crag Law Center, which helped negotiate the agreement that led to the passage of House Bill 1602. Passed in 1971, the oft-amended Oregon Forest Practices Act set standards for logging practices, including applying pesticides and replacing harvested trees, and building and maintaining roads.
Environmental groups approve
The result of a long, contentious and costly negotiation between at least 13 environmental and fishing groups and 13 timber companies, passage of SB1602 was immediately cheered by environmental groups.
“We applaud (the) affirmative vote because it establishes a lasting policy of community pesticide right-to-know, as well as protective no-spray buffer zones for homes and schools, as well as drinking water intakes,” said Eugene-based Beyond Toxics in a press release. “For the first time in Oregon’s history, SB 1602 sets no-spray buffer zones for small streams and tributaries.”
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The bill’s passage is a milestone on the road to cleaner water and healthier salmon runs.[/perfectpullquote]
“This is a big day for the state of Oregon,” said Sean Stevens, executive director of Oregon Wild. “This legislation is a down payment on bringing our forest laws into the 21st century and finally turning the myth into reality—that Oregon has strong laws that protect our forests and communities.”
“Today is another milestone on the road to cleaner water, safer communities and healthier salmon runs,” said Bob Van Dyk, Oregon and California policy director for the Portland-based Wild Salmon Center. “This validates the hard work by conservation and fishing groups to hammer out a deal with timber companies. And it shows broad, bipartisan consensus that it’s time to modernize Oregon’s forestry practices.”
Arduous effort rewarded
Following Rickard’s 2013 experience in Gold Beach (during which her husband and dog experienced similar symptoms) and a 2014 Oregonian investigation into pesticide spray complaints, Senator Michael Dembrow of Portland and former Representative Ann Lininger of Lake Oswego co-sponsored aerial pesticide spray legislation in 2015.
The battle for passage was arduous.
A major breakthrough came in February 2020 when representatives from both sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU pledged both sides to pursue a “science-informed policy development process, rooted in compromise” lest competing initiative petitions appear on the November 2020 statewide ballot.
Passage of SB1602 eliminates that possibility and vindicates years of tenacious effort.
“They’re hoping that if they pass something, we’re just going to go away,” said Rickard in 2015 about an early, watered-down version of a reform bill that irked activists. “Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.”
“Rickard promises she and other advocates for tougher spraying rules will be back next session to push for more,” reported Jefferson Public Radio in 2015.
Rickard and many others kept their promises. Oregonians are now safer because they did.
