April 21st 2015

by Adam Randall 04/21/2015 Ukiah Daily Journal A Mendocino County resolution asking area timber companies to voluntarily suspend “hack-and-squirt” practices failed to gain approval by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. Supervisors John McCowen, Carre Brown and Tom Woodhouse voted against it. There was nearly four hours of heated testimony with at least 150 residents in the board room. Many sought to stop the now common practice which involves timber operators making a cut in tanoak trees and then spraying a herbicide in the cut to permanently kill the tree. If the resolution had passed, the county would have taken measures to conduct an independent fire danger analysis and request that timber companies stop hack-and-squirt practices for no more than six months. Fire officials from across the county also attended the Tuesday meeting to voice concerns over the potential fire hazard of leaving dead timber standing across thousands of acres over the county. According to Mendocino County Agricultural data, in 2014, 1,022 gallons of the chemical Imazapyr was administered over 6,800 acres of forest timberland, which was down from 1,560 gallons in 2013.