Friday, October 07, 2005

Forest Service fires official who complained about pesticide use

Parker, who has not spoken publicly about his case, worked for the agency for nearly four decades and said he was proud to wear the Forest Service uniform.
"The whole reason behind this is I reported some significant pesticide misuse problems to the regional forester and they don't want to have controls over this process," he told the AP. "They want to be pesticide cowboys and go out there and do what they want to do without consideration of compliance with their own policies, regulations and environmental laws."
Parker filed a whistleblower complaint earlier this year that pointed to what he called a "systemic problem" when it comes to proper pesticide use across several forests in New Mexico and Arizona.
He accused some managers of not preparing environmental risk assessments and failing to get approval from agency officials who have the authority to make decisions about pesticides.

No comments: