Dear Friend,

At this late hour, we were notified by a member of Beyond Pesticides about an environmental assessment for the proposed use of eight hazardous pesticides for the management of weeds in a National Forest. The Environmental Assessment is worse than inadequate and sets a terrible precedent for the use of herbicides for weed management in national forests. We have put together the attached comments and hope that you have a moment to send in the comments before the deadline tonight, September 13 at 11:59pm. We are asking for a full Environmental Impact Statement with a more robust assessment of hazards and alternatives.

>>You can send your comments with one click below—see our comments to the National Forest Service here. 

This is what we have said to the Forest Service:

We are writing to request that the Forest Service conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the rules of the National Environmental Policy Act for the proposed pesticide spray program under its Invasive Plant and Interfering Vegetation Treatment for the Allegheny National Forest. While we realize that this treatment plan extends previous work conducted by the Forest Service, it reflects a major escalation of the use of poisons on federal land and, in our view and as the science shows, requires the in-depth review required of an EIS and missing from the Environmental Assessment presented to the public for comment in August 2023.  

We conclude:

We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Forest Service proposal for widespread pesticide use without the appropriate analysis of the range of pesticides proposed for use and the full range of alternatives that are available for management of weeds. As a steward of the environment and under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest Service has both a legal and an incredibly important environmental and public health responsibility to manage land with a full and robust assessment of harm and alternatives. That has not been done here. It is our request that the Forest Service engage in a more robust review through a complete EIS. 

Please send the attached comments to the Allegheny National Forest Supervisor, Jamie Davidson, and Ecosystems Staff Officer, Joshua Hanson. >>You can do this here through Beyond Pesticides' action alert system, or you can submit your comments directly on the Forest Service website here.

The targets for this Action are National Forest Service Forest Supervisor Jamie Davidson and Ecosystems Staff Officer Joshua Hanson.

Thank you for taking action! — The Beyond Pesticides team