NEWS
BY MOHAMMED ALKHADHER
COUNTY LOOKS AT
SPRAYING ROADSIDES
WITH HERBICIDES
L
ane County is considering changes to its longtime
ban on spraying roadsides with chemicals.
The Lane County Vegetation Task Force pro-
poses changing from the current “Roadside Vege-
tation Management and Last Resort Herbicide Use
Policy” to the “Roadside Integrated Vegetation Manage-
ment Plan” that takes into account using a limited amount
of chemicals to control vegetation.
The county has held open houses in Veneta and Cre-
swell, and county spokesman Jason Davis says that the
taskforce will review public comment and then give rec-
ommendations to the County Commission, which would
then have a formal vote.
The changes proposed to Lane County Code are the
first amendments to the policy in over a decade, says
Lane Vegetation Coordinator Orin Schumacher.
“We manually and mechanically control 82 miles
of guard-rail locations in our vegetation roadside pro-
gram,” Schumacher says. “We’re finding that we’re not
adequately able to keep up with the blackberry problems
and the woody stuff behind those guard rails.”
Schumacher says the proposed new policy follows the
advice of the Vegetation Management Advisory Commit-
tee (VMAC) that met over the span of 18 months before
reaching consensus over a recommendation to make the
policy, adding, “It’s word for word what the committee
suggested.”
VMAC, made up of nine Lane County community
members, came together to provide these recommenda-
tions, Schumacher adds. It’s not staff or Lane County
bringing these proposals forward.
Beyond Toxics Executive Director Lisa Arkin was a
VMAC member. She says the county is currently oper-
ating under a “no spray” policy that coexisted with an
integrated vegetation management (IVM) policy and
that the two policies were at odds with each other. The
Environmental Protection Agency defines IVM as “the
practice of promoting desirable, stable, low-growing
plant communities” that resist invasion by tall-growing
tree species through methods such as “a combination of
chemical, biological, cultural, mechanical and/or manual
treatments.”
“The county commissioners saw that there was a mis-
match there and appointed this task force to align them,”
Arkin says, “essentially saying that the no-spray policy
is a no go.”
Arkin says under the
proposed amendments
the county would still
honor requests from res-
idents who do not want
chemical sprays on their
properties’ road front-
age.
Lane County is the
only county that has
a policy prohibiting
the use of herbicide to
control roadside veg-
etation in the state,
says John Sundquist, a
Lane County resident
and former member of
VMAC. Lane County
has the “best roadsides”
in the state, he says, and
the county isn’t giving
enough credit to how well the current policy has done
thus far.
“I’m not opposed to the use of pesticides,” Sundquist
adds. “I think it’s possible to use them judiciously and
safely.”
But Sundquist says he worries the proposed integrated
vegetation management plan is difficult to understand
and interpret as it stands.
The purpose of changing the current policy is partly
due to injury claims and public conflict over crew out
there working, Schumacher says, adding that crews have
rolled ankles, have made contact with poison oak, been
stung by bees and nearly hit by passing cars.
“For the past 12 years the Lane County Roadside Veg-
etation Management has not used herbicides and we’re
really striving to keep anything that can be brought back
in as a very limited approach,” Schumacher says. “A very
targeted and very limited approach.”
He adds that this pro-
posal is not like other
programs across the
country where roadsides
are sprayed with herbi-
cides to control vegeta-
tion. For example, Lane
County plans to apply
herbicide to tree stumps
with a paintbrush as
opposed
to
spray-
ing chemical herbi-
cide, Schumacher says.
“We’ve learned over
10 years that we’re just
having a really hard time
maintaining mechani-
— JOHN SUNDQUIST
cally or manually right
now,” Schumacher says,
“for safety, cost and ef-
fectiveness.”
Schumacher says the proposed herbicides will be cho-
sen from a permitted products list vetted through the Pub-
lic Health Advisory Committee and the Board of Health.
Arkin says while she prefers a no-spray policy — be-
cause it can be done, and Lane County has shown that it
can be done well with appropriate funding and staffing —
she says this proposal is still the best in the state.
Sundquist has a harsher criticism: “My unsung ques-
tion to every level of county staff is, if they thought the
citizens were going to buy this proposal as presented,
what were they smoking?”
‘Lane County is the
only county that has a
policy prohibiting the
use of herbicide to
control roadside
vegetation in the state.’
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