Siskiyou Land Conservancy
Protecting California’s Wild North Coast and Rivers Since 2004

2016

It’s probably safe to say that no one likes using pesticides. Even Easter lily farmers have told me that “we don’t like using them,” adding that they have “no choice.” The lily bulb crops would be ruined, they say, without the 300,000 pounds of dangerous chemicals they apply each year to farmlands that surround the Smith River estuary and border residential neighborhoods and an elementary school.

Certainly farming is economically fraught. The weather, the pests, the whims of fickle consumers. Individually and combined, the challenges facing farmers are many. Read More

In late 2016 Siskiyou Land Conservancy released our Smith River Community Health Assessment, which clearly demonstrates significant human impacts of pesticides used on Easter lily fields. That report is now available here. Why are county health officials, and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, ignoring the report? Click here to read more Read more

In late 2016 Siskiyou Land Conservancy released our Smith River Community Health Assessment, which clearly demonstrates that pesticides used in the cultivation of Easter lily bulbs in, Del Norte County, are impacting the health of people who live in the small town of Smith River.

Just before Easter, the national on-line news magazine TakePart has run a major story about pesticides used on the Smith River Plain to grow Easter lilies. TakePart describes itself as “the digital division of Participant Media,” the company that brought us such films as Academy Award winning Spotlight, as well as An Inconvenient Truth and CITIZENFOUR.

The Smith River is home to several robust populations of fish, including chinook and coho salmon, steelhead trout, cutthroat trout, green sturgeon, and the endangered tidewater goby. Following is a partial list of reports available about these species. Anadromous fish Coho salmon Tidewater goby Green sturgeon Read more

Easter lily farmers in Smith River use an enormous amount of “bad actor” pesticides to grow their crops. These are chemicals that have demonstrated significant adverse impacts to the environment, and to human populations. The first document below is a list of pesticides used in Smith River and their impacts to humans and the environment Read more

1 2 3