The New Mexico Wildlife Federation has written to federal officials protesting a plan to conduct aerial pesticide spraying to kill grasshoppers and crickets on some 25,000 acres of public lands in the Rio Chama watershed.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the NMWF, wrote Monday to officials at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service — a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture — and at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to oppose the plan.
Agency officials say aerial spraying of the pesticide carbaryl is necessary to kill unusually high numbers of insects that pose the threat of reducing available forage for livestock. Officials had intended to start spraying this week but have now postponed until at least July 7 to reconsider the matter in light of strong opposition from conservation groups.
In his letter, Deubel expressed concerns that spraying carbaryl would wipe out bees and other pollinators, kill insects that fish eat and possibly pose human health risks as well.
Deubel said it’s particularly ironic that the APHIS would propose the spraying when the national head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture this month proclaimed the importance of protecting pollinators nationwide.
“The New Mexico Wildlife Federation recognizes the economic importance of grazing to many traditional families in our state,” Deubel said. “But it’s critical that our land management agencies see the importance of ecosystem management that respects the whole spectrum of plants and animals that together form a healthy environment. We can’t manage our public lands that belong to all of us like a commercial feedlot to benefit a single domesticated species.”
Deubel asked the agencies to abandon the spraying plan and come up with alternatives that won’t harm the environment. “This spraying proposal didn’t get adequate public review, and the federation is strongly opposed to seeing it move forward,” he said.
Deubel encouraged concerned conservationists around the state to contact the APHIS and BLM and express their opposition to the spraying plan.
To contact APHIS, write to Mr. Shawn Carson, Acting New Mexico State Plant Health director, at: shawn.r.carson@usda.gov
To reach the BLM, write to Field Manager Pamela Mathis of the Taos Field Office at: blm_nm_tafo_admin@blm.gov