State and federal agriculture officials insist the invasive moth poses a huge threat to California agriculture - and the rest of the nation's crops if aggressive action isn't taken soon in Marin and the Bay Area. In many urban areas, including parts of Southern Marin, that approach means aerial spraying of a synthetic pheromone that disrupts the moth's mating cycle.
Opponents of spraying, including a coalition of activists in Marin, contend the moth doesn't pose that great a risk - and that the health risks posed by what the state wants to spray are not worth the price.
The state should be commended for a strategy that is based on pheromones, which are classified as a pesticide because they are designed to get rid of the moth. State workers have placed small metal hangers infused with the pheromone in parts of Marin, including San Rafael and Ross, where single moths have been found.
But state officials insist the number of moths found in parts of Tiburon and Belvedere are too great to be eradicated by hangers or by spraying a pheromone-laced pesticide high on utility poles or in trees. They say aerial spraying of a product, which includes bounding compounds for the pheromone, probably will be necessary.
After last year's outrage over aerial spraying in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, where some 600 people reported health problems, state officials are working hard to both explain the need for spraying and to come up with new spray formulas that address health concerns and also only need to be sprayed every 60 or 90 days - not every 30 days.
A.G. Kawamura, the California secretary of food and agriculture, assured the IJ Editorial Board that aerial spraying poses no health risks. He says spraying is necessary to control and eradicate the moth before it spreads beyond the greater Bay Area. He pointed out the moth also was found in Santa Barbara, well outside the Bay Area, and that the moth's apparent rapid spread has been because it hitched rides on products from nurseries.
He said that allowing the moth to become established in urban areas would result in residents using unregulated and often excessive amounts of chemical pesticides to control the moth - forever. The result will be large amounts of pesticides in the environment that make their way into our creeks and the bay. He says that is a dangerous pattern that must be avoided.
We appreciate the state and federal concern about the threat posed by the light brown apple moth. We do not believe it is a myth. The Bay Area is home to hundreds of invasive species that cause harm and will continue to do so because there is no easy, safe or practical way to get rid of them.
State officials contend most people are comfortable with aerial spraying and blamed the opposition on a vocal minority. We are not convinced that is the case. This ultimately boils down to who you trust. Many people are skeptical of whose interests the government has at heart - the public at large or California's agriculture industry.
We don't believe state and federal officials would deliberately put Bay Area residents at risk to get rid of a moth.
But we question their decision to move ahead with aerial spraying over Marin and other urban areas this summer. Some 30 Bay Area cities have gone on the record opposing the spraying. We favor a more aggressive ground-based strategy, even if it is more expensive and requires far more staff. This approach should be given a full and fair test before planes start spraying over homes in Tiburon, Belvedere, Sausalito, San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area.
Perhaps aerial spraying will be necessary. But this stubborn rush to take to the air - before officials have demonstrated to the public that they have exhausted all other approaches - is a mistake that likely will do great harm to public trust in government. We urge state leaders, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and federal officials, to get involved while there's still time.