(\'\'ill"tlt
By ROBERT FRANK PreH County Editor
CO J1
i
I
/'((~
f i'C5Y
By the reaction of the audience, It was a no-contest win Monday for three environmentalJsts who protested the use of all herbicides In the Panhandle National Forest during a meeting of North Idaho College's Popcorn Forum. During the past two weeks, two of the panelists Frank Crary, publisher of the Pulpwood Press,. and Charles Sheroke, a Coeur d'Alene lawyer - have contended that the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) plans to use a wide variety of herbicides in North Idaho, including 2,4-0, Silvex, 2,4,S·T, Garlon, Roundup, Amitrole, and several others. They further point to the fact that 2,4,5-T and 2,4-0 wilJ combine to form a substance like " Agent Orange" - the controversial defoliant used in the Vietnam war. The forest service, on the other band flatly denied that it plans to use 2,4,5-T and reminded environmentalists that the EPA bas temporarlly banned use of this substance. Monday, however, Sheroke launched a new attack on the USFS. He protested the use of all herbicides in the national forest. "During these times, with our poor economy and high unemployment," he said , "the thought of increasing the profit of Dow C~mlcal rath· Charles Sheroke er than employing local people to do the same work is totally ludicrous and objectionable. lA>cal forest workers should be glven the first consideration." The partially fill auditorium immediately rang with applause. The controversy over herbicides was ignited several months ago, when the forest service submitted a lengthy study concerning its plans to begin a vegetative management project in the Avery Ranger District east of St. Maries. In essence, the USFS wants to increase the timber productivity of 60,000 acres of land In the North Idaho area. Some of those areas are steep slopes that have been overgrown with a thick covering of scrubs and brush. The brush in some regions, the USFS contends, is so thick it prevents the growth of trees. Consequently, it wants to cut back the brush and shrubs and Frank Crary plant more conUer trees. Sometimes the most economical means of completing that work, the USFS contends, is to use herbicides. The forest service report on the Avery District rlid " the cost of manual brushing and subsequent ma, ual release (of herbicides) would far exceed at rial herbicide application." In a 294-page environmental assessment, the l iSFS stated that vegetative management in some 1''ortb Idaho forests would be handled In a variety of ways -
manual labor, mechanical clearing, fire, and regis· tered herbicides. Each case, the USFS said, would be considered individually. " We are opposed to the use of all herbicides for three reasons," Sheroke said. " First, they are not safe from a health standpoint. Second, they are not cost efficient. And third, their use result a loss of employment for timber workers." Another major bone of contention is this: that EPA's suspension of 2,4,5-T is under consideration. Dow Chemical, the manufacturer of the substance, is protesting the ruling, and If it wins, the suspension could be lifted and the substance would be considered for use in the Panhandle National Forests, the environmentalists said. Three governme.nt officials and one representative from EPA all say there ls no way of knowing which way the decision will go. The protest has been in the courts for more than 18 months and nothing has happened. Sheroke and Crary, however, contended that the Reagan administration has stacked the deck in the favor of Dow Cbernlcal and other industries. AB evidence, Sheroke pointed to the June 1981 appolntr1ent of eillht new EPA officials, who have all served
major industries in some capacity. The EPA appointees include a new director - Anne Gorsuch - who formerly worked as a lawyer for Mountain Bell in Denver, and three top EPA man· agement officials: a Miami, Fla. ~wyer who bas represented General Motors and Eastern Airlines, a Houston lawyer who bas represented Euon Corp., an executive who is associated with the steel industry in Ohio. Bob Jacobson, from the EPA in SeatUe, this morning said be saw "nothing sinilter about having a number of appointees from the buline• and industry sector." EPA, he said, should be a mix of people from three different area - "academia, government and business." People with experience in industry, be said, often have a better understanding of "real world concerns" and "know where regulations overlap and bow they can cut through red tape." " If somecne can come in and cut through the red tape and bureaucracy," he said, "and acbleve the same results with less bureaucracy, that's great." But, even if the new EPA admlnistratlon upholds the ban of 2,4,5-T, Sheroke said be still opposed the use of any herbicides in the North Idaho forests.
•
• • •
:r-
CD
a-0.-·
~
en