{"id":391846,"date":"2026-07-09T10:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391846\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T10:18:15","slug":"should-we-spray-burn-scars-with-glyphosate-californians-reckon-with-grim-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391846\/","title":{"rendered":"Should we spray burn scars with glyphosate? Californians reckon with grim reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0For years, Reid Reichardt walked the forest trails behind his Tahoe Basin cabin nearly every day with his dog Jasmine. Then in 2021, the Caldor fire swept through, incinerating it all. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really a sense of mourning and grief to lose this,\u201d Reichardt said, eyes fixed on the towering blackened sticks around him. <\/p>\n

Since then, Reichardt has watched birds, flowers, a sea of green shrubs and baby conifers fill in the moonscape. It\u2019s been a ray of hope for him, as Jasmine aged and eventually passed.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait <\/p>\n

Reid Reichardt\u2019s dog Jasmine.<\/p>\n

(Reid Reichardt)<\/p>\n

But two months ago, Reichardt got a text from a friend: The Forest Service had approved a plan to kill off shrubs it says are blocking the conifers from growing. It plans to use glyphosate, an herbicide California has determined causes cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think many people, including me, would say, I\u2019d rather my house burn down than get cancer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Increasingly severe wildfires \u2014 fueled by climate change and more than a century of forest mismanagement \u2014 have forced an environmental reckoning on mountain towns nestled in California\u2019s Sierra Nevada. Their residents face difficult questions: Will some kind of forest grow back? And, if not, should humans intervene to make that happen? Two communities, 100 miles apart, may be choosing different answers. <\/p>\n

Many foresters and fire ecologists argue the plentiful baby conifers behind Reichardt\u2019s home will struggle to compete with the fast-growing shrubs for sunlight, water and soil nutrients. Should another fire roll through, the seedlings are not yet tall enough to hold their branches above the flames.<\/p>\n

But many Tahoe Basin residents say they are willing to live with whatever grows back, if it keeps glyphosate away.<\/p>\n

\"Reid <\/p>\n

Reid Reichardt stands next to Saxon Creek in the Caldor fire burn scar, near the area the Forest Service wants to use herbicide to kill the shrubs it says are crowding out the baby conifers.<\/p>\n

(Scott Sady \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never see it like it was in my entire lifetime, and we need to be OK with that,\u201d said Madeline Moritsch, who spent summers at her parents\u2019 Tahoe cabin growing up and now lives in town. \u201cIt\u2019s really sad … to lose connection to the forest, but then also, it is part of the forest life cycle. I have great trust that the forest is going to do what it\u2019s going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Tahoe basin, opposition to the herbicide reached a fever pitch after an article chronicling the Forest Service\u2019s use of the chemical across California appeared in Mother Jones magazine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The agency had posted newspaper notices and sent emails mentioning herbicide use and seeking public input last year, but Tahoe residents said they had missed them or didn\u2019t make much of them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to welcome feedback from community members and appreciate the ongoing interest and involvement from the public,\u201d the Forest Service said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The controversy over reviving the forest is a shame, some say, because, done right, these projects can help restore the identity of forest towns and a feeling few have felt in decades: safety. <\/p>\n

The stewards of the forest \"Hand-made <\/p>\n

Material to be burned is piled in an area the Konkow Valley Band of Maidu manage in the Dogwood District of Plumas National Forest.<\/p>\n

(Sara Nevis \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

About 100 miles northwest of the Tahoe Basin, lower down in the foothills, survivors of the epic 2018 Camp fire that destroyed the town of Paradise have a very different relationship with forest stewards.<\/p>\n

The Butte County Fire Safe Council<\/a> \u2014 made up of three dozen foresters, former firefighters and local fire survivors \u2014 has countless stories of working with local landowners to heal forests and reduce wildfire risk.<\/p>\n

In a ride with four of them in one of the council\u2019s heavy-duty white pick-ups, conversation is constantly interrupted as they point out areas across the county\u2019s rugged wild lands that they\u2019ve worked on.<\/p>\n

More than a third of Butte County\u2019s 1 million acres have burned over the past decade. That has made taking action and having tough conversations \u2014 including about herbicide \u2014 unavoidable.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A flag marks a Konkow Valley Band of Maidu cultural site.<\/p>\n

(Sara Nevis \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Connor Gilmartin, the Fire Safe Council\u2019s director of development, sympathized with residents in the Tahoe Basin. \u201cIt\u2019d be completely reasonable that people feel slighted if they were to have something happening in their proverbial backyard without knowing about it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a non-option for us.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Fire Safe Council and forestry herbicide experts stressed that when herbicide is used, crews take significant precautions to protect ecosystems and communities. They post signs along trails and mix in dye so residents can see where the chemical has been used. It can\u2019t be applied near streams and lakes. <\/p>\n

Experts also said it is extremely unlikely for people using trails to get accidentally exposed to glyphosate levels that scientists deem unsafe.<\/p>\n

Why use glyphosate<\/p>\n

For well over a century, the state and federal government aggressively suppressed all fire in California forests \u2014 many of which were adapted to low-severity flames that rolled through the understory every five to 20 years. These free-range \u201cgood\u201d fires, set by lightning and Indigenous tribes,<\/a> thinned out and rejuvenated forests for millennia.<\/p>\n

Without them, parts of the Sierra Nevada have grown five to six times as dense as they were a few hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

Combine that with increasingly hotter and drier weather due to climate change, and forests in the Sierra Nevada are left with a ton of stuff that\u2019s ready to burst into flames.<\/p>\n

Now when a fire ignites, it\u2019s often high-intensity, devouring virtually everything in its path \u2014 including hundred-foot-tall trees.<\/p>\n

After such a fire, shrubs that usually fight for scarce sunlight on the forest floor suddenly have it all day and take over.<\/p>\n

\"One <\/p>\n

One of many conifers seedlings among the shrubs the Forest Service would like to eradicate using herbicide.<\/p>\n

(Scott Sady \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for this reason many experts say intervention is necessary if the forests are to grow back within the next several decades. <\/p>\n

Without intervening, \u201cthe Forest Service is not getting a forest back. That\u2019s pure and simple,\u201d said Scott Stephens, UC Berkeley professor of fire science. Hoping fire stays out of the forest during its slow recovery process, \u201cI would call that risky business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To cut back on the shrubs and give the conifers a chance, Stephens said land managers have a few options: Goats, hand crews and herbicides.<\/p>\n

Goats are great at munching up unwanted vegetation; however, if they aren\u2019t introduced immediately, the goats are no match.<\/p>\n

Land managers can also send in hand crews to take down shrubs with loppers, hoes and chainsaws. But that is labor intensive, and when a fire burns thousands of acres, the time and cost involved can be too high.<\/p>\n

That leaves herbicides.<\/p>\n

Of those, glyphosate is one of the few reasonably priced, effective and, many argue, comparatively safe herbicides that land managers can rely on for restoration work. <\/p>\n

\"Reid <\/p>\n

Reid Reichardt hikes a well-known mountain bike trail, Toad\u2019s Wild Ride, behind his home near South Lake Tahoe. Reichardt and others worry that hikers and bikers will be exposed to herbicide applied under a Forest Service plan.<\/p>\n

(Scott Sady \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

In the Tahoe Basin, the Caldor fire restoration plan outlines roughly 3,600 acres where the Forest Service could use ground crews to apply herbicide directly to shrubs \u2014 no aerial spraying. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s gotten a bad name because so much attention has been focused on it, it\u2019s actually effective and comparatively benign,\u201d Jon Souder, retired Oregon State University forestry professor, said of glyphosate.<\/p>\n

Whether glyphosate causes cancer is still debated.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined it is not likely a human carcinogen. The cancer research arm of the World Health Organization says it probably is. <\/p>\n

For many residents near Lake Tahoe, it\u2019s not a risk worth taking.<\/p>\n

Teaching the land to trust<\/p>\n

Matthew Williford Sr., tribal chairperson of the Konkow Valley Band of Maidu, shook his head as he stood on a dirt road overlooking the fire-ravaged Concow Basin, separated from Paradise by just one canyon.<\/p>\n

\u201cNature needs help too, just like we need help from nature,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t understand that because we went another way. We lost connection with the land. That\u2019s why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is 3A,\u201d he said, referring to the Forest Service\u2019s name for this plot. \u201cWe have a tribal name for it \u2014 it\u2019s called the Place of the Grasshoppers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up, Williford heard stories of ancestors catching giant grasshoppers, wrapping them in a maple leaf, adding a berry, then roasting them in fire and eating them like popcorn. <\/p>\n

But those grasshoppers were long gone.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew <\/p>\n

Matthew Williford Sr., tribal chairperson of the Konkow Valley Band of Maidu, stands in front of a hand-made burn pile in the Dogwood District of Plumas National Forest. <\/p>\n

(Sara Nevis \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

California outlawed cultural fire in 1850, the year it became a state. The forests grew dense. Conifers took over the oaks. The plants and animals Williford\u2019s ancestors held relationships with became strangers.<\/p>\n

Then everything burned.<\/p>\n

The Forest Service began increasingly approaching the tribe for help.<\/p>\n

With the blessing and support of the Forest Service, the tribe began working to restore parts of its homeland \u2014 not as a shrubland, or thick conifer forest, but an open and free tapestry anchored by oaks. <\/p>\n

For the work, the tribe has sometimes leaned on herbicide \u2014 particularly to kill ornamental French and Spanish broom, which are invasive. The alternative, digging it up, risks damaging cultural sites.<\/p>\n

\"Close-up <\/p>\n

Matthew Williford Sr. points out a native plant in the Concow Basin.<\/p>\n

(Sara Nevis \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

On plot 3A, the tribe worked with the Forest Service to grow oaks and bring back good fire.<\/p>\n

One day, Williford stopped by 3A.<\/p>\n

As he hopped back into his truck, a loud buzzing startled him. His truck was covered in giant grasshoppers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just getting the land to trust us and to see that we\u2019re here to help it \u2014 like we used to,\u201d he said. \u201cThe land will respond. There\u2019s no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0For years, Reid Reichardt walked the forest trails behind his Tahoe Basin cabin nearly every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,29008,4900,28558,10379,92634,42577,157654,157658,102179,157657,157656,288,13803,157655,72],"class_list":["post-391846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-camp-fire","tag-cancer","tag-forest","tag-forest-service","tag-glyphosate","tag-goat","tag-herbicide-california","tag-herbicide-use","tag-indigenous-tribe","tag-land-manager","tag-reid-reichardt","tag-resident","tag-shrub","tag-tahoe-basin-cabin","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}