{"id":331,"date":"2026-05-26T23:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=331"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:02:36","slug":"federal-government-set-to-spray-devastating-herbicide-in-tahoe-basin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanfranciscomovingguide.com\/?p=331","title":{"rendered":"Federal government set to spray ‘devastating’ herbicide in Tahoe Basin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The U.S. Forest Service is moving ahead with plans to spray the controversial herbicide\u00a0glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, on thousands of acres devastated by the Caldor Fire, including in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The plans have sparked growing public opposition and have come under scrutiny from local residents, wellness and organic food advocates and environmentalists after an investigation published by\u00a0Mother Jones this spring\u00a0showed the federal government is spraying the herbicide at \u201crecord levels\u201d across California forests.<\/p>

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Glyphosate is an effective, if potent, weed killer, approved by the U.S.\u00a0Environmental Protection Agency, and it\u2019s been widely used by the agricultural industry since Monsanto began selling it as Roundup in 1974. The extensive use of glyphosate on crops has long been controversial: It is known to destroy habitat for monarch butterflies and bees. And in 2015, the World Health Organization\u2019s cancer research division said that glyphosate is \u201cprobably carcinogenic to humans.\u201d That opened the door for more than 100,000 lawsuits to be filed against Monsanto by people who had been diagnosed with cancer including non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma after using Roundup. Now, the Supreme Court is weighing a case about whether Monsanto is liable for not including a cancer warning on its product.<\/p><\/div>

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The agricultural industry isn\u2019t the only industry spraying the chemical. The Mother Jones investigation analyzed millions of spraying reports and discovered that the Forest Service sprayed 266,000 pounds of glyphosate in California forests in 2023, the most recent year that the data was available, which is about five times the amount used two decades ago.<\/p><\/div>

In 2011, the Forest Service conducted a analyzing glyphosate\u2019s impact on human health and ecological risk. \u201cThe preponderance of the available data, however, clearly indicates that the mammalian toxicity of glyphosate is low,\u201d the report states. Yet, the report relied on research that was heavily influenced by Monsanto, according to a trove of emails and court records reviewed by Mother Jones.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

\u201cMonsanto poisoned the well of public understanding of science,\u201d Naomi Oreskes said in the Mother Jones story.\u00a0Oreskes is the co-author of the 2010 book \u201cMerchants of Doubt,\u201d\u00a0which revealed a corporate strategy to influence research on tobacco and climate change.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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Despite the controversy and uncertainty that surround glyphosate, the Forest Service continues to use it on landscape-scale reforestation projects.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Plans have been approved to spray the chemical on more than 46,000 acres in the Caldor Fire burn scar, including between 2,400 and 3,600 acres in the Lake Tahoe Basin.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Local officials emphasize that the vast majority of spraying is happening outside of the Tahoe Basin in the Eldorado National Forest. A video released last week by Mother Jones is creating \u201cmore distrust and confusion\u201d about the boundaries of the Tahoe Basin and the impact of the herbicides on Tahoe\u2019s watershed, said Jeff Cowen, a spokesperson for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, in an email to SFGATE.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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\u201cIt seems like the lack of understanding of the different watersheds and project plans, separate National Forest Units, and a concrete understanding of agency roles in the Tahoe Basin isn\u2019t giving people a good basis from which to express their concerns,\u201d Cowen wrote.<\/p><\/div>

The Caldor Fire restoration plans attracted little attention before Mother Jones published its investigation. The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit quietly approved its environmental assessment in March, which received just 16 comments from the public.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Now, thousands of people are speaking up. As of Tuesday morning, more than 14,000 people have signed a petition\u00a0protesting the Forest Service\u2019s use of\u00a0glyphosate in the Tahoe region.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Glyphosate \u201chas been linked to serious environmental harm, including the decline of crucial pollinators like bees, contamination of water sources, and risks to human health,\u201d the petition states. \u201cIts use in the Tahoe Basin could have devastating effects on our local wildlife, flora, and the crystal-clear waters that have earned Tahoe its nickname, \u2018The Jewel of the Sierra.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/div>

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The Caldor Fire burned more than 221,000 acres in 2021. Large swaths of forest burned with so much intensity that\u00a0the seed bank was destroyed, and the trees are unlikely to grow back for decades unless humans intervene, according to the Forest Service. The restoration plans are a road map to remove torched, dead trees and plant new seedlings of native trees.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

The Forest Service uses glyphosate to remove weeds and shrubs and prepare planting sites for the new trees. The agency said herbicides help give seedlings their best chance at survival by reducing competition for nutrients and water. As the trees grow and become established, herbicides may continue to be used to eliminate nearby shrubs and weeds.<\/p><\/div>

Spraying has already begun in the Eldorado National Forest, just outside of the Tahoe Basin. The Forest Service expects to spray herbicides on about 2,000 acres every year for the next five to 10 years, according to an emailed statement that the agency sent to SFGATE.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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Maps from last year document where the agency sprayed glyphosate,\u00a0including around the base area of the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort. This spring, the Forest Service plans to use it near campgrounds, hiking trails and off-highway vehicle roads. Mostly, glyphosate and other herbicides will be sprayed with backpacks and wands. However, the Forest Service is looking into using booms mounted on trucks and all-terrain vehicles to spray roadsides in the Eldorado National Forest.<\/p>

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The timing is less clear in the Tahoe Basin. SFGATE asked when spraying would begin in the Tahoe Basin, and the Forest Service responded vaguely, writing in an email that \u201cspraying is associated with seedling planting and growth\u201d and that site prep for new seedlings has not been proposed for this year or next year. \u201cNo specific date has been determined beyond those years,\u201d the Forest Service wrote.<\/p><\/div>

Critics are demanding more answers. \u201cI would love to get a phone call back and know what their plans are,\u201d said Tobi Tyler, the vice chair of the Sierra Club\u2019s\u00a0Tahoe Area Group.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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The exact location of where glyphosate will be sprayed in the Tahoe Basin remains to be determined, the Forest Service said. The overall boundaries of the restoration project surround neighborhoods in Meyers and South Lake Tahoe and are near the headwaters of the Upper Truckee River, Lake Tahoe\u2019s largest tributary. But first thing\u2019s first: The Forest Service needs to clear out the dead trees before field reconnaissance can begin.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Herbicides will be used \u201cselectively,\u201d the Forest Service said, and the public will be notified where spraying has occurred. \u201cThe majority of herbicide use is expected to be in areas where hand treatment is necessary, which are generally further from existing roads,\u201d the agency wrote.<\/p><\/div>

No herbicides will enter Lake Tahoe, a federally protected\u00a0Outstanding National Resource Water under the Clean Water Act, the Forest Service said.<\/p><\/div>

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Tyler of the Sierra Club, a retired water quality expert, doesn\u2019t buy it: \u201cIt will get into the water, the streams,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

\u201cThey say it breaks down. Well, it could definitely go into the air or the water before it breaks down. And what does it break down into? The bottom line is the discharge,\u201d Tyler continued, adding that \u201call the water that falls in the basin all goes to Lake Tahoe, eventually.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Keep\u00a0Tahoe Blue is also looking for more answers. The watchdog environmental nonprofit asked the Forest Service for more transparency, especially around where the herbicides will be applied, site-specific safeguard, why they\u2019re necessary and how glyphosate will be monitored to ensure Lake Tahoe\u2019s protection. \u201cThe lack of publicly available information\u00a0\u2014 beyond the broad strokes included in the project\u2019s Environmental Assessment\u00a0\u2014 has understandably raised concern and questions from groups like ours and the broader community,\u201d the nonprofit said in a statement emailed to SFGATE.<\/p><\/div>

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The Forest Service doesn\u2019t need approval to use herbicides for a forest health project in the Tahoe Basin. The project was fast-tracked under a memorandum of understanding between the Forest Service and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency\u00a0that exempts fuel reduction and forest health work from TRPA review and permitting, said Cowen, the TRPA spokesperson.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

The TRPA strongly discourages the use of herbicides in the Tahoe Basin, it but doesn\u2019t prohibit them, he added.<\/p><\/div>

\u201cThe Forest Service is a key partner,\u201d Cowen wrote in a text message to SFGATE, noting this collaboration has led to more than 100,000 acres of successful forest thinning work, which saved Meyers and South Lake Tahoe during the Caldor Fire. \u201cWe work closely with them and all member organizations of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team to ensure our environmental standards and shared goals are met with every project.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Meanwhile, opposition to glyphosate is growing quickly. A nurse in El Dorado County commented on the petition, stating that she cares for patients who were exposed to\u00a0glyphosate and have suffered from \u201cblood cancers, leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other serious illnesses.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

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