From Kate Poss–I remember following this victory when we first moved to Whidbey Island in 2000. I have high regard for Laurie Keith and Mark Wahl and their dedication to caring for our island’s long-term well being. Also kudos to Marian Edain and Steve Erickson of Whidbey Island Environmental Action Network for their ‘in the trenches’ dedication to preserving our natural world. Last week I met with Mark and Laurie. I believe this story is important to consider while living in these times. The story–a result of many rewrites– is a true collaboration between Laurie, Mark and I.
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Anyone remember the dead brown plants all along the side of our roads? The dead zone strip was due to a four-to eight-foot wide “scorched earth” swath of toxic chemicals sprayed each spring along the side of our county and state roads.
It’s been almost 25 years now that we’ve had parklike roadsides, with wildflowers and salal bordering our byways. People here may not know that a hard-won local citizen victory in Island County inspired a movement statewide and then influenced many other states to decrease herbicide use on the miles of public roadways across our nation.
A small group of committed individuals and a supportive local Whidbey community took action to reverse habitual county practices about herbicide use, refute corporate spin tactics by chemical companies, and shake up passive acceptance by the population. Several factors came together to make this difference.
Back in 2000 there were a number of people on the island who were not able to drive to the grocery store during the spring roadside spray campaigns because just driving next to those toxic chemicals would make them ill.
Two of them, Theresa Gandhi and Lori O’Neal, along with Brad Weeks, MD were speaking out about it at an event. Inspired by their story, Laurie Keith, a Langley massage therapist and yoga teacher in the audience decided to step up and help.
“I wanted to do something to care for my local bioregion,” Keith recalled. She enlisted some friends who were also choosing to take on a project to care for the earth as part of a local study group facilitated by The Northwest Earth Institute, now known as: ecochallenge.org.
They created an action organization of individuals and groups that shared this interest and formed Whidbey Island No Spray Coalition…WINS. WEAN (Whidbey Environmental Action Network) joined WINS and provided procedural and legal guidance.
Fifteen years previously, WEAN formed in part to negotiate with the county to implement and respect orange NO SPRAY signs posted by owners along their roadside property. This attempt helped a percentage of roadsides remain herbicide-free, but getting progress on further reduction measures stalled while spraying was growing ever more potent.
What was remarkable with WINS’ actions at that time was the level of public participation.
“Email was a new and novel thing at that time. People were eager to get an email inviting them to write a letter or come to a commissioners meeting. They weren’t overloaded with too many causes as people often are these days,” recalled Laurie Keith, president of WINS. “Meanwhile, at one point WSU sent in a Monsanto-funded Economic Entomologist to explain to the commissioners the safety of Roundup! People showed up.”
After carefully prepared meetings with the county road supervisor, stressing worker hazards, soil damage and other hidden costs to herbicide use, WINS also got a fortuitous boost with the election of a more sympathetic commissioner to its cause.
The continued pressure merited a commissioners’ vote. Finally, on April 1, 2002, an anxious, boisterous crowd arrived at the commissioners’ meeting just before they voted on the policy of vastly reducing the chemical spraying and reverting to integrated vegetation management, and relying strongly on mowing.
“Just before their vote on April 1, 2002 at the commissioner’s meeting, there was standing room only” said Mark Wahl, a WINS member who focused on the potential cost savings analysis.
On that day, April Fools Day, 2002, the commissioners cancelled their standing order to buy more and more pesticides (each year the amount escalated because of increased resistance to the herbicide) and purchased mowers instead. It was a victory, with lots of follow up to do…but the ship was turned…no more dead plant zones along all the highways.
What finally brought the commissioners around? Was it all the letters, two thousand petition signatures, the cost analysis, the numbers of people showing up? The good research on alternative practices and examples of other No Spray counties? The new commissioner? Or was it Theresa Gandhi showing up every week at the commissioners’ meetings with her fake canary in a cage, a gas mask on her face, and her brazen reading of the research conclusion that these herbicides cause “testicular atrophy and erectile dysfunction in frogs!”
The April Fool’s Day vote wasn’t the end. About a year later Clallam County asked WINS to work with them to get the state to stop spraying.
WINS (with WEAN’s full participation!) joined Clallam County activists and solicited the support of Washington Toxics Coalition and NW Center for Alternatives to Pesticides and went to work. Two years later, WSDOT held a PR information event in Coupeville to try and calm the WINS coalition that they now called, “Whidbey Is Never Satisfied”…aka WINS.
Instead of people being appeased by WSDOT’s presentation, one after the other of Whidbey residents stood up to speak out against the state’s spraying of herbicides. Again it was a packed house. Keith described the energy then as “Whidbey rocks!”
Doug MacDonald, who headed WSDOT at the time, listened and eventually responded. He was newly hired by Washington State following his successful campaign at cleaning up polluted Boston Harbor. Maybe it was the people’s power here…or maybe it was that WEAN’s research had discovered an old WAC (Washington State administrative code) that had mandated annual reduction in herbicide use that clearly was not being followed…and at the event they let it leak that WINS/WEAN had a $50,000 donation ready to fund a lawsuit.
Ray Willard, a state roadside maintenance chief architect, was empowered by WSDOT, and emboldened to craft a truly green Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management Plan, first using 18 miles of Whidbey’s state highway as a pilot. Mark Wahl and Marianne Edain—a cofounder of WEAN—kept the pressure on WSDOT during that pilot, including attending several extensive work sessions with a variety of groups, all with the goal of developing a plan for an effective alternative roadside management plan. Over two decades later, the collaboration crafted a pre-eminent plan cutting between 50% and 70% yearly of herbicide use when compared with usage in 2000.
In 2018, Willard returned with a cadre of his top staff to Whidbey to give a vivid visual presentation before the original WINS/WEAN members. He showed how radically evolved the roadside maintenance plan for Whidbey’s, and now, Washington’s, highways had become. It seemed he wanted them to simply enjoy and share it….and also to have his managers meet and salute the people who pushed for this change.
New roadside management methods include: GPS, distribution of multiple iPads, smart apps (and likely drones today) to help map species locations, water runoff patterns, and timing of treatments. The goal: promote the native plants already there or installed, using minimal mowing around native plants, and naturally choking out noxious weeds. Workers and planners capitalized on detailed plant knowledge.
Ray Willard recently shared that this integrated roadside management approach has been the defining work of his career. He said Washington State is a model for Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management, getting regular requests from other states to share plans and methods. Another payoff: about 1,500,000 pounds of active ingredients of toxic chemicals are NOT going onto our earth and into its groundwater for the past 20-plus years!
Folks report they have been enjoying walking their dogs along the grassy byways for a couple decades now. That they breathe in the fresh air with some gratitude. Next time you see the mowers or pause to admire the greenery along the road, send appreciation for all it took to preserve the island’s quality of life.
Note: these efforts prompted the state and county to revise their vegetation management for the road edge (called Zone 1) from blanket spray, to mow or specific treatments for individual plant species. Both still do spray for certain weed species, under guardrails and before some paving.
Also, in the last few years, budget cuts at the state level are making it harder to implement the full plan for managing the vegetation correctly. In the tradition of WINS, if you feel called, you could write our legislators and ask them to fully fund the Integrated Vegetation Management Plan policies so that WSDOT can continue to manage roadsides in the tradition that has been established and be a leader in the nation for healthier public lands.
Finally, Laurie Keith wrote in a recent email: “The main thing for me is it is basically…hey did you know how good we have it? Check out this cool history on Whidbey Island where the little guys and the local community made a difference even in the face of the Big Boys. I like offering some good news, bright light, inspiration, positive vibes…so people can feel a lift …some glee as I do when they drive down the roads seeing the salal and grasses waving in the breeze…or the mowers!”
4 Comments
This is great. A wonderful example of our community in action.
Yes. The force is still with us.
South Whidbey Tilth worked with WINS and WEAN as well as Ray Willard. Laurie Keith brought her goats to a work party to manage the roadside forbs. We had a huge work party with WEAN to establish wild roses along the Tilth Highway border. We renewed our No Spray agreement with WSDOT every year until Willard retired and the new contact wouldn’t engage with us.
J.C. May monitored the Tilth border on both sides of the highway for Scotch Broom and Tansy Ragwort for many years. The organization continues to oversee some roadside maintenance. The state policy to reduce toxic spray has helped tremendously.
Thank you for adding this piece to the important story!