Herbicides & Pesticides

The Klamath Forest Alliance has been a leader in discouraging pesticide and herbicide spraying on private, federal and state lands; including the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuges, private lands logging projects, and on the Salmon and Scott Rivers, which are significant steelhead and salmon tributaries to the mainstem Klamath River.

Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuges
The Klamath Basin, described as the "Everglades of the West" once held 350,000 acres of shallow lakes, freshwater marshes, wet meadows, and seasonally flooded basins in southeastern Oregon and northern California. Today, at least 80 percent of the Basin's wetlands have been drained for cattle grazing, and the growing of pesticide dependant agricultural crops such as alfalfa, malt barley, potatoes and onions. KFA along with several other regional and national groups have filed lawsuits and submitted comments to the Bureau of Reclamation and Fish and Wildlife Service on refuge lease lands farming practices.

Klamath, Salmon & Scott River Basins
KFA has worked with local community organizations, ranchers, farmers and government to find alternatives to pesticides and herbicides, and encourage biologically safe alternatives. We have participated in local watershed and Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors meetings, and helped develop the community "no spray" response to dealing with noxious weeds in the Salmon River Basin. We have also been at the table urging the Klamath National Forest to adopt a non-toxic approach to control and eradicate non-native plants, and protect Native American tribal resources and salmon bearing streams.

Private Lands Logging
Intensive logging practices such as clearcut logging, or other versions which leave only a few spindly trees behind, create high fire conditions as brushfields re-grow on private timberlands. Private logging companies use herbicides to deal with brush growth at the risk of harming amphibians, reptiles, birds, fisheries and even larger mammals such as humans. KFA has opposed intensive logging practices on private timberlands which encourage the desire to use herbicides, instead we have called for the use of more sustainable logging practices. We have submitted comments on Timber Harvest Plans (THPs), and joined our coalition members in attending Board of Forestry meetings to get the statewide Forest Practice Rules changed to limit herbicide and pesticide use.