For a remarkable showing of backbone, the employees of the East Bay Regional Park District, AFSCME Local 2428, take the lead for labor in opposition of the USDA/CDFA LBAM pesticide program!

Take this to your unions, co-ops, collectives, your fellow workers, students, and activists, and especially so-called environmentalists like the Sierra Club who try to please both sides of a battle, and show ‘em how it should be done:

Date: April 10, 2008
To: Distribution
Re: AFSCME Local 2428 Resolution Opposing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Pesticide Program to Attempt to Eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth:

WHEREAS, this union of park workers is pledged to conserve the land, the air, the water, and the life that resides there for the present sustenance of the people and use by future generations; and

WHEREAS, the Union/Management Ecology Committee is working in a cooperative manner to implement the District’s goal of reducing the use of chemicals on District property; and

WHEREAS, each of the methods planned by the USDA and CDFA’s pesticide program to attempt to eradicate the light brown apple moth, whether by aerial spraying, ground spraying, twist ties, permethrins on trees and utility poles, chemical traps, or other related methods have known and unknown negative health and environmental impacts associated with them; and

WHEREAS, science has shown that chemicals in the environment pose significant health risks to the public and the ecosystem; and

WHEREAS, scientists have reported that the light brown apple moth has not caused any substantial crop damage and is more successfully controlled without the use of chemicals, by encouraging natural predators and healthy soils to prevent the spread of damaging infestations; and

WHEREAS, Local 2428 is concerned about the health and safety of park workers and park users, especially the most vulnerable populations of young, old, or the infirm who may be exposed while working or visiting in District parklands to unnecessary and untested levels of known carcinogenic and mutagenic chemicals.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, Local 2428 strongly opposes this eradication plan and demands that the USDA downgrade the pest classification of the light brown apple moth to reflect the lack of risk it poses; and

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, Local 2428 will work with communities across the state, the nation, and the globe to seek alternatives to chemical pest management by creating healthy habitat, including, but not limited to, the use of bio-intensive gardening to attract natural predators and soil microbes, and the addition of organic compost to add nitrogen and minerals to the soil in order to support the plants’ own immunity against “pests.”

Sierra Club California supports a precautionary moratorium on the aerial spraying designed to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth. The moratorium is necessary to allow for the assessment of control strategies that can effectively manage the pest to acceptable thresholds without compromising human and environmental health. We call for the use of control strategies that avoid public exposure to pesticides that cause cancer, birth defects, mutations, or reproductive effects, or alter the immune system or behavior of non-target organisms. These strategies may include the use of nontoxic integrated pest management methods, including aerial application of pheromones in highly infested areas of significant size. We call for the public disclosure of any and all ingredients to be sprayed and the informed consent of the residents affected by the spraying. Sierra Club California supports the following measures pending in the State Legislature:

SCR 87 (Migden), which calls for a moratorium on the spraying until it can be proven safe and effective.
AB 2760 (Leno), which would require the completion of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) before aerial application of pesticides in urban areas for LBAM eradication. The EIR is the state tool for undertaking an alternatives assessment of impacts on human and environmental health.
AB 2763 (Laird), which would require advance planning for the control of invasive species in a scientifically methodical and publicly transparent manner.
AB 2765 (Huffman), which would require disclosure of pesticide ingredients, examination of alternatives to aerial spraying, and a public hearing to consider all alternatives before eradication projects in urban areas could begin.
ACR 117 (Laird), which would require independent scientific review of the health and scientific questions about the LBAM spraying program.

Bill Magavern
Director
Sierra Club California
Bill Magavern email: Bill.Magavern@sierraclub.org

My Email Response:

As a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, I do not support the aerial application of microencapsulate pheromones in an effort to eradicate the light brown apple moth. I plan to move out of the LBAM eradication areas. The microencapsulates cause breathing difficulties and can get lodged deep into one’s lungs. The American Lung Association is against any and all microencapsulate pheromones, toxic pesticides, and any and all toxic chemicals aerial and ground sprayed to eradicate any type of insects.

My daughter, who has asthma and allergies, attends the University of California Santa Cruz. Last week, she met with her physician and he told her to not return to Santa Cruz once the LBAM spraying begins since it would make her asthma conditions worsen. She now has to return home with the hope of not being sprayed where we live and apply to other colleges outside the LBAM eradication areas.

Hopefully, the Sierra Club of California and the national Sierra club will publicly oppose the policy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture in utilizing aerial application of microencapsulate pheromones in a effort to eradicate LBAM and support integrated pest management methods that do not utilize toxic chemicals on humans and the environment.

Your point about the evergreen needles is especially important and is one we keep publishing. Leaf roller moths live on leaves…not needles, and as the Harder and Carey reports show, the light brown apple moth will be kept in check by natural predators so long as we don’t kill all those natural predators off with pesticides (birds, bats, beetles, earwigs, etc.)

It is such a disheartening thing to realize that an organization you have supported does not support human life or environmental health and I want to take a moment to thank you for deciding, regretfully, that you can’t support the Sierra Club because of their cowardly and unintelligent position on the aerial spraying of California.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment. Please, visit again.