Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Supervisor Ray Mueller, District 3
Subject: Prohibition on participation in incentive programs offered by the manufacturer or vendor of herbicide or pesticide products by County contractors when providing vegetation management services for County projects on County lands
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution prohibiting County contractors from participating in incentive programs offered by the manufacturer or vendor of any herbicide or pesticide products when providing vegetation management services for County projects on County lands.
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BACKGROUND:
When managing vegetation on County lands, including in our parks, County departments utilize Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which is an ecosystem and science-based stewardship strategy that focuses on the efficient and long-term prevention of pests or their degradation of ecosystems through a combination of control methods.
Those control methods involve, whenever feasible, non-chemical methods, such as mowing and grazing. County departments also sometimes utilize certain chemical treatments (i.e., herbicides and pesticides) for vegetation management projects when non-chemical techniques are determined to be either ineffective or infeasible, and do so in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, beneficial and non-target organisms, and the environment, such as using herbicides with lower acute toxicity.
For any County vegetation management project(s) contemplating the use of herbicides or pesticides in an agricultural setting-a term that is defined by the California Food & Agricultural Code to include (among other things) park lands-County departments are required by law to obtain a written pest control recommendations ("PCRs") from a state-licensed pest control advisor ("PCA").
PCAs are licensed through the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, which requires that ...
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