MAINE MONITOR • April 18, 2021
At a public hearing on a bill to ban aerial spraying of synthetic herbicides in silviculture, Maine Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) shared a chilling observation: “If you go to an area that’s been sprayed by these aerial herbicides, the silence will take your breath away….There are no birds chirping, no squirrels running around and no trace of wildlife.” Jackson’s words held eerie echoes of Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring”: “There was a strange stillness. The birds for example – where had they gone?” Carson’s 1962 book warned about the dangers of applying pesticides by the planeload at a time when this country had few environmental regulations. Her scientific research helped inspire stronger legislation to protect wildlife and communities. Yet nearly 60 years later, aerial herbicides applied in Maine by forestry corporations increased from 2013 to 2018. Jackson’s bill before the Legislature, LD 125, would end that deadly habit.