Katherine Levy left Lake Tahoe decades ago but recently returned to retire along the lake's north shore, expecting to recapture memories of water-skiing summers and mountain winters. Instead, she discovered a federal plan that has sparked fierce community resistance: the U.S. Forest Service intends to spray herbicides, including glyphosate, across national forest property overlooking the alpine lake.
"I was horrified to find out what has been going on," Levy said.
The Forest Service is using the restoration of areas burned by the 2021 Caldor fire as justification for the spraying. The wildfire charred more than 200,000 acres in the Lake Tahoe basin, and the agency manages over 156,000 acres of national forest land in that region. The spray campaign would target shrubs and brush that officials say could interfere with replanted trees.
Glyphosate, marketed as Roundup and developed by Monsanto in the 1970s, has become the center of the controversy. The World Health Organization classified it as probably carcinogenic to humans in 2015. Federal regulators have also linked it to potential harm to over 90 percent of endangered species. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, maintains the herbicide is safe, and the EPA says it is "unlikely" to be carcinogenic.
The spraying would be applied by backpack rather than from aircraft, the Forest Service said, though residents and local officials remain skeptical. Roughly 75 percent of Lake Tahoe's watershed sits within national forest land, and some proposed spray zones sit on mountains above the lake with snowmelt feeding directly into tributaries that flow into the water.
Cody Bass, mayor of South Lake Tahoe and a board member of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), said the plan caught him off guard. "I had no clue that glyphosate was still being used in the forest," he said. "It was kind of a shock to me that we know what we know about it and still use it on public lands."
The TRPA, which discourages synthetic herbicide use throughout the region, sent a letter to the Forest Service on May 27 requesting a meeting to discuss minimizing herbicide applications "to the greatest extent feasible."
Community awareness of the plan only surfaced recently after Mother Jones reported that up to 75,000 acres affected by the Caldor fire were targeted for glyphosate spraying. A follow-up article revealed that spraying had already occurred at one ski resort south of Lake Tahoe in May. A town hall was held on June 11 to coordinate opposition, with residents organizing through social media groups like Lake Tahoe Locals and Keep Tahoe Blue.
The Forest Service is not alone in turning to herbicides for post-fire restoration. Federal data obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity shows that from 2017 to 2020, the Forest Service applied 938,732 pounds of pesticide products across nearly 1.5 million acres nationwide. "We expect there are going to be more and more of these spray projects," said Lori Ann Burd, director of the environmental health program at the Center for Biological Diversity. "There is always some excuse that doesn't make a ton of sense when you weigh that with the potential harms and risks."
The Forest Service designated the Lake Tahoe restoration work as requiring "emergency" authorization in March. The agency estimates that 2,400 to 3,600 acres within the project area may receive herbicide treatment. Robert Lorens, the Forest Service's project planner, acknowledged community concerns and pointed to the agency's claim that all chemicals used are registered with regulators and have undergone biological review.
Hannah Teter, who works at a local wakesurfing charter company in the South Lake Tahoe area near the burned lands, voiced concern about the broader implications. "The idea of spraying thousands of gallons of herbicides across the Tahoe basin in an effort to dictate which species regrow after a natural wildfire is deeply troubling," Teter said.
The push to stop the spraying has attracted support beyond the region. Leaders with the Make America Healthy Again movement, who have been lobbying the EPA to ban or restrict glyphosate, are helping organize opposition. Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA leader, said "the greater Tahoe community is shocked that the US Forest Service would even consider spraying glyphosate in its treasured, pristine forest, and is rapidly organizing to push back."
Author James Rodriguez: "The Forest Service has a real restoration job on its hands after the Caldor fire, but spraying thousands of acres with a pesticide the WHO flagged as probable carcinogen into a watershed that feeds one of America's most iconic alpine lakes is a choice so tone-deaf it practically begs for pushback."
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