Herbicide Plan Draws Protesters Boise Cascade Plans To Spray Stevens County Timberland

A dozen people picketed the Boise Cascade sawmill here Thursday in a last-ditch effort to convince the company to halt plans to spray herbicide on its timberland in central Stevens County.

Protesters from the Waitts Lake area seven miles southwest of Chewelah brandished signs accusing Boise Cascade of hypocrisy in advertisements touting the company’s environmental sensitivity.

“Boise lies,” one sign said.

“Chemicals are not natural,” said another.

But company spokesman Jim Levers said the spraying is intended to mimic the natural role of fires in reducing brush that chokes out seedling trees.

“We don’t see a conflict with the statement that we manage our forests naturally,” Levers said. “Not in treating it with something as mild and as acceptable as what we are using.”

The company plans to spray 582 acres of clearcut and burned-over timberland west of Waitts Lake with a combination of Accord and Arsenal herbicides. A contractor will do the job with a helicopter Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thursday’s hour-long demonstration, watched by city police and sheriff’s deputies in three cars, was peaceful despite a few catcalls from workers at the sawmill. The only confrontation was when independent truck driver Bill Shelton walked across U.S. Highway 395 to kibitz with the protesters.

“I’m not over here to fight,” Shelton said. “I just want to see you guys think.”

Waitts Lake resident Brian Cummings, a retired veterinarian, initiated a heated exchange with the 42-year-old Shelton. In the end, though, he and Shelton shook hands and parted on good terms.

Cummings was pleased to learn Shelton shares his distaste for clearcuts.

Protester Ellen Breiter, representing Stevens County Residents for Alternatives to Pesticides, called for Boise Cascade to delay the spraying until the group’s appeal can be heard by the state Forest Practices Appeals Board.

An appeal probably couldn’t be heard for several months, and company officials said the company can’t wait that long.

Chief forester Steve Tveit said the spraying must occur within the next two to four weeks, before the brush goes dormant and can’t absorb the chemicals. The trees will be safe because they have just gone dormant, he said.

The protesters fear the herbicide will drift onto their property or enter creeks and contaminate their water supplies or even Waitts Lake. Breiter said she thinks “99 percent” of the spray opponents would be satisfied if Boise Cascade applied the spray with ground crews.

Tveit said that would be impractical because the brush is up to 20 feet tall.

Protesters dispute the findings of state and federal regulators that the chemicals don’t pose a health threat.

Breiter said the findings were based on data supplied by the herbicide manufacturers. She said her group wants time to present new, more independent research that shows Accord and Arsenal are hazardous.

But an administrative law judge refused Monday to halt the spraying until the appeal filed by Breiter’s group and several individuals can be heard.

Levers said everyone had a chance to be heard in 1992, when state regulations were amended.

“They’ve had their day in court,” Levers said, noting public testimony was taken before state officials classified Accord and Arsenal.

State officials decided those herbicides, unlike some others, don’t need a public hearing for each application.

, DataTimes