MCCLOUD, California – The California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the Siskiyou County Waste Management Unit are investigating a case of illegal dumping from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Shasta McCloud Management Unit. Additional action on this matter has been taken by the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center. This development is made possible by a local forester’s brave stand to expose wrongdoing and stop a looming environmental injustice from affecting their community.
According to Andrew Wyatt, a forester hired by Black Fox Timber Management Group based in McCloud, he first observed the dumping of tree marking paint in September. Photographic evidence obtained by Wyatt shows a Black Fox crew contracted by the USFS digging holes about 1-foot deep and dumping a paint-water mixture into the soil. The whistleblower alleged that this illicit activity occurred over 2 months as the crew marked a mixed conifer stand with pine, cedar, and fir located in the Pondosa area east of McCloud. Wyatt reported that, when confronted about this wrongdoing, the project supervisor responded that it was part of the protocol verbally instructed by the USFS.
11 Comments
My Dad, Wade McCollum, was the caretaker out there and kept an eye on all activities going on. Since he died in 2011 all kinds of “getting away with it because we can “. My father had integrity and honor in doing things right. These people know this is wrong…
Why are their faces blurred? These people need to be publicly shamed! I have some garbage I’d like to dump in their backyard. B S send the to jail
Jail is so extreme, grow up. Are you calling for leadership of polluting corporations to go to jail?
Yes Renee I am!
I am a CEO of a corporation and yes that is exactly what I am saying. Knowingly dumping toxic paint in the forest is wrong and there isn’t an excuse for it. My company has disposed of hazardous waste since 1991 responsibly. Costing my company tens of thousands of dollars.
I also live East of McCloud, so this is my backyard, where I hike and fish. So Renee no I don’t want paint dumped in the forest by anyone. If you don’t mind I have plenty of toxic waste I can have brought to your backyard. Hold them responsible Renee!
WTAF????
I think the article is misleading either on accident or on purpose. That is also not USFS wide policy. Either that crew is misunderstood in their action, or misunderstood what theyre supposed to do.
I highly doubt “dump the paint in a hole in the ground” is written in any protocol, hence the verbal instruction. Properly disposing paint to avoid polluting shouldn’t be that hard to understand in my opinion… And I would assume part of the investigation would be looking into other forest service districts to determine how widespread or systemic the negligence is.
This has been protocol for as long as I can remember. I dont understand the outrage now. It’s been done like this my whole life and was always public knowledge. I get changing it but the timing of the outrage is weird to me.
It was never ‘protocol’ on any Forest I worked on. Every can was accounted for and tracked from when ordered from the manufacturer to using it in the field to proper disposal, including tracking the empty containers. Each can had a serial number. The inventory better match up at the end of every day or no one went home until the discrepancy was cleared up.
Accountability is paramount. Thank you, Andrew Wyatt, for standing up and doing the right thing!
I was on a FS marking crew that was instructed to do this.