BLM seeks increase in herbicide use.

Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

The Bureau of Land Management proposes to triple the amount of land on which it uses herbicides in the Western United States.

The area sprayed in Western Oregon would increase to 70,000 acres annually, up from the current yearly rate of 21,000 acres, under the plan in a vegetation draft environmental impact statement.

Bureau officials say spraying is a necessary weapon against rampant invasive weeds, which have squeezed out native plants and taken over millions of acres of public land.

A 20-year-old court injunction that restricted the use of pesticides in Oregon left the bureau "a little bit handcuffed" in its fight against the prolific weeds, said Todd Thompson, an agency natural resource specialist based in Portland.

The finalized environmental study due later this year would be the first step toward asking a judge to lift the injunction.

But the Eugene-based Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides - whose predecessor organization brought the original case - says the proposed change would create a dependence on pesticides.

"Most herbicides that they are planning to use are very potent. They're good at killing plants. You end up with a lot of dead plants, which means bare ground - which means a good place for more weeds," staff scientist Caroline Cox said. "This will essentially put them on an herbicide treadmill."

Though the environmental study was, in part, spurred by the desire to free the Oregon BLM from the court-imposed restrictions, the scope is far broader.

The study addresses the use of 16 herbicides on 262 million acres of bureau-controlled lands in 17 Western states.

Agency Director Kathleen Clark said the initiative is part of President Bush's effort to reduce fire danger on public lands. Some fires are fueled by juniper and pinyon trees; sagebrush, mesquite and other types of brush; and cheatgrass and other plants that can become tinder-dry.

Though Western Oregon weeds may be less vulnerable to fire most of the year, there's the striking example of gorse. The invasive shrub with spiny and oily branches served as the wick when Bandon burned to the ground in 1936. On BLM land in Lane County, aggressive weeds have invaded about 10,000 acres. The varieties include blackberry, false brome and knotweed.

Timber industry officials see another benefit: Use of pesticides on the agency's Douglas fir plantations could increase the productivity of the land, said Chris West, spokesman for the Portland-based American Forest Resources Council.

BLM lands in Southern Oregon are arranged in a checkerboard pattern - a remnant of homesteading days, when the government gave away alternating sections of land.

Agency forests raised without spray now alternate with private timber lands raised with spray used to knock down competing vegetation, and the difference is "night and day," West said.

Spindly trees on the public land compete with brush for sun and water while the private trees of the same age are a dozen feet tall, he said.

The herbicides are needed to "make sure the trees that are planted can get up and above the brush so they get on to the business of growing," West said.

Chuck Fairchild, specialist with the BLM Eugene District, said timber companies want the agency to use herbicides on public land, if only to keep weed seeds from blowing onto private land, where pulling the weeds by hand is considered too expensive.

But Cox of the anti-pesticide group said the government's proposal - currently out for public comment - is unlikely to solve the invasive weed problem because, she said, it ignores the causes.

The weed seeds are spread by cars along roadsides, around pastures by grazing livestock and along trails by off-road vehicles, she said.

The U.S. Forest Service, she said, took a more effective approach to the problem. That agency made a commitment to address prevention as part of its everyday management decisions, and adopted an objective of reducing its reliance on herbicides, she said.

"They did make a pretty significant effort to look at the causes of invasive plant problems - and put that first. Herbicide use comes after that," Cox said. "The BLM was decidedly less interested in a collaborative approach."

If the agency adopts the proposal to triple the acreage treated with pesticide, years will pass before the practice in Oregon changes. That's because the agency must return to court to get injunctions lifted on two issues.

First, it must persuade a judge to expand the list of approved chemicals from four to 16.

The 17-state environmental analysis will help Oregon BLM officials make their case because it contains evidence on those chemicals' risks, effects and impacts, Thompson said.

Second, Oregon agency officials have to write an entirely new environmental impact statement on the practice of using herbicides to retard vegetation (native or otherwise) in Douglas fir plantations on BLM land.

Local officials had hoped the national environmental analysis would address the issue, but it was impossible to grapple simultaneously with the invasive weed and forestry applications, Thompson said.

"Both of these would have gotten hung up. We needed to be very focused," he said.

YOUR TWO CENTS

The Bureau of Land Management is seeking views on a proposal to triple the amount of herbicide used on the public lands it manages. Comments must be postmarked by Feb. 10.

By letter: Write to Brian Amme, Project Manager, BLM, P.O. Box 12000, Reno, NV 89520-0006

By fax: [phone]

By e-mail: [e-mail]

For more information: www.blm.gov/nhp/spotlight/VegEIS/