Drone watch -- PAUSE!

A small, but hopefully not temporary, victory...

This morning at the BOCC business meeting, Commissioner Marta Loachamin initiated a pause for the Red Hill drone pesticide application that was passed by a 2-1 vote! You can go here to watch the recording. There are only about two minutes of business before they start with a BCPOS presentation, followed by commissioner comments and questions. No public comment was allowed though a few community members were able to speak to weed management in relation to POS land acquisitions in later agenda items. As of the start of the meeting, Commissioner Loachamin had received over 1000 emails…THANK YOU FOR SHOWING UP AND MAKING YOUR VOICES HEARD!

We are not out of the woods. What was passed today was a PAUSE not a stop or policy change and will be revisited after the annual update which should happen sometime in January. If there is enough momentum for an official change to the 2024 IWMP, it will require more public notice and hearings, making it an uphill battle to not just get Commissioner Loachamin on our side right now but to get her to change her mind and have the courage to stand with Commissioner Stolzmann to remove drone spraying completely. Commissioner Levy did not agree and thoroughly expressed her distaste with the proposed pause.

As I said at the end of the last post, the survey for the new BCPOS director is an important part of changing policy and practices so, if you haven’t already filled that out, please do that soon.

For now, we can celebrate this win…it was only achieved by such quick community engagement and I am grateful for everyone who made it possible!!