Gypsy Moth Spraying & Meeting Challenges

Gypsy Moth Spraying & Meeting Challenges. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Western Washington Department of Ag officials have proposed spraying 10,500 acres this spring to kill leaf-eating gypsy moths. Seven locations on the west side of the state include Kent, Tacoma, Vancouver and Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Two environmental reviews are underway and the agency is consulting with other local, state and federal agencies since aerial spraying has been a controversial issue in the past.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is looking ahead at 2016 to make sure they can meet any challenges and opportunities that may come up. Katy Coba, ODA's Director, says they were given some new responsibilities and resources by the 2015 State Legislature. Some of those resources will go into the high profile issue of pesticides.

COBA: Our Pesticides Program– additional investigators, additional resources in our Pesticide Analytical and Response Center so that we can better coordinate within state government how we respond to concerns from citizens about being exposed to pesticides and getting them the help they need, a new hotline that will be opening up soon. We'll continue to spend a lot of time on implementing recreational marijuana and the industrial hemp program. We got a new position to be our lead coordinator for our agency but I would expect, as we move forward, we might even see new resources coming into the agency.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.