ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

when/where/who took this photo?

The picture is NOT from Matilija Canyon. It was shot in 2004 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Maybe he didn't croak; maybe he was kilt.

The county is willing to experiment with the very lives of all the species in Ventura county -- when evidence against glyphosate use has been in for decades:

http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Roundup-Glyphosate-Factsheet-Cox.htm

Check out the usual county lies told in 2007 (including, for example, "if herbicide is detected in the river the operations will be modified and carefully monitored"):

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/pjenkin/matilija/news.htm

The mega-poisoning of our teeming wild is a shameless and idiotic abuse of power on the part of Steve Bennett and his colleagues.

Without the consent of the creatures -- human or otherwise -- that live on and in this land, these officials have bequeathed to Ventura County an unredeemable legacy of poison, poison, and more poison.

Got death?

Sincerely,

Jock Doubleday
Director
Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.
A California 501(c)3 Nonprofit Corporation
http://www.spontaneouscreation.org
director@spontaneouscreation.org

ah dinna see no kilt!

"WATER QUALITY

The Los Padres provides the major source of water for 37 reservoirs within and near the national forest, providing water for central coast towns and a rich variety of agricultural crops. While most of these waterways remain in good condition, several others are becoming increasingly impaired and polluted. In fact, the Forest Service admits that nearly half (17) of the watersheds in the Los Padres are in “moderate” or “poor” condition.

Water pollution spells significant problems for communities, agriculture, tourism, recreation, and habitat. Several communities – Santa Barbara, Ventura, Carmel, Monterey, Ojai, Arroyo Grande, and others – receive their drinking water from rivers that originate in the Los Padres. Many watersheds within the Los Padres drain directly into the Pacific Ocean, including the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Roads are the main source of water pollution in the Los Padres, causing increased sedimentation and erosion. Other activities that impact water quality include grazing, mining, fuels management, and oil drilling. As a result of these activities, at least 10 streams classified as “impaired” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency originate in, or flow through, the national forest. Despite recurring water quality problems in several areas, the Forest Service devotes only 8% of its resource management budget on protecting water quality."

Los Padres ForestWatch

Original article http://www.lpfw.org/projects/rivers.htm

thanks Patty,

for your continued and expanding outreach.

sorry to hear this is a COUNTY Meeting ... indoctrinating the public in their program of violence.

their ONLY concern is money and power, and that is why the meeting.

it has NOTHING to do with CaneGrass ... they are killing everything in contact with the poison ... nearly all plants, all amphibians, all reptiles, all birds, all fish, and more!

and these, particularly amphibians which have been killed off 90 percent in California, are what wetlands are about. the wetlands are about amphibians, and all life. not the fishermen and the corporate/government goonsquads.

whose Capitalist Cult programs ONLY result in LESS forests, LESS watersheds, LESS life!

we should coordinate a REAL meeting of the PUBLIC who want to see an end to County and other violences against the people of the Ojai Valley, against the watershed and the wildlife.

all our relations,

Millennium Twain

if and WHEN we want to remove the Canegrass, WE will
do so ... and it will be a years or decades long project,
and it will be organic and wonderful!

not deadly and bestial, power-playing and money-grubbing,
like this overlord County of Ventura!

bestial?!
overlord County of Ventura??

Without a doubt, maintaining pesticide free watersheds is important for every community.

that'sa no dead frog, he' only a fakin. look at hisa tongue!

Patty, all,

Any news from 'Gangster-Dumb' last night? Their POISON-OJAI Campaign?

Of the 'Ventura' County Goon Squad!

California Penal Code
CRIMES AGAINST THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY

Any person who knowingly causes any hazardous substance to be deposited into or upon any road, street, highway, alley, or railroad right-of-way, or upon the land of another, without the permission of the owner, or into the waters of this State is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year or by imprisonment in the State prison for a term of 16 months, two years, or three years ...

What is a watershed?

The watershed is the total land area from which rainwater drains into a creek, river, lake, ocean or any body of water. The watershed includes all of the natural terrain and neighborhoods surrounding these major water bodies, including your home or business. In Ventura County our primary watersheds include the Ventura and Santa Clara Rivers, Malibu and Calleguas Creeks, and the bays and estuaries – all of which empty into the Pacific Ocean.

"the watershed should only shed water"

http://www.cleanwatershed.org/

Ojai Chemo-Desert, not.

Ojai Valley Watershed, nice.

Ojai Valley-Wide Wetlands Forest Chaparral mix, better. Before the Spanish priests and agriculture, this Valley my ancestors flitted across was as much Wetland as Oak forest and Chaparral brushland.

Immense lifefilled OASIS created by the vast surrounding Mountain chains, which can be brought back by stepwise returning of the creeks and diversiculture and wetlands and relationship with our Mother Earth.

http://ojaivalleynews.blogspot.com/2008/07/herbacide-fears-prompt-meeting.html

N.Y. Attorney General slams Monsanto on glyphosate use

Steve Bennett, L-1900
800 S. Victoria Ave.
Ventura, CA, 93009
Phone: (805) 654-2703
Fax: (805) 654-2226
email to [steve.bennett-at-ventura.org]

Steve,

It's official: You and your colleagues didn't do your research.

You should have known through basic research -- and now you do know, after reading many emails from concerned citizens -- that inundating Ventura County with glyphosate will disfigure Ventura County's ecology, impact human health, and possibly send endangered fish, amphibian, and bird species to extinction.

But hey, the county's arundo will be gone. Maybe.

* * *

Subject: IT'S OFFICIAL: Glyphosate NOT environmentally friendly: Monsanto Forced to Change Ads

January 10, 1997

Pesticide Action Network North America
(PANNA), San Francisco, CA.

Monsanto Agrees to Change Ads

Monsanto Co. agreed to change its advertising for glyphosate-based products, including Roundup, in response to complaints by the New York Attorney General's office that the ads were misleading.

Based on their investigation, the Attorney General's office felt that the advertising inaccurately portrayed Monsanto's glyphosate-containing products as safe and as not causing any harmful effects to people or the environment.

According to the state, the ads also implied that the risks of products such as Roundup are the same as those of the active ingredient, glyphosate, and do not take into account the possible risks associated with the product's inert ingredients.

As part of the agreement, Monsanto will discontinue the use of terms such as "biodegradable" and "environmentally friendly" in all advertising of glyphosate-containing products in New York state and will pay $50,000 toward the state's costs of pursuing the case.

The Attorney General has been challenging the ads since 1991. [Monster] Monsanto maintains that it did not violate any federal, state or local law and that its claims were "true and not misleading in any way." The company states that they entered into the agreement for settlement purposes only in order to avoid costly litigation.

According to a 1993 report published by the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, glyphosate was the third most commonly-reported cause of pesticide illness among agricultural workers. Another study from the School of Public Health found that glyphosate was the most commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape maintenance workers. (Both studies were based on data collected between 1984 and 1990.)

In the first nine months of 1996, Monsanto's worldwide
agrochemical sales increased by 21% to US$2.48 billion, due largely to increased sales of Roundup.

Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
Phone: (415) 541-9140
Fax: (415) 541-9253
see panna-dot-org

* * *

If you and your colleagues want to discover -- too late -- the astonishingly toxic effects of glyphosate, go here:

[go to mindfully-dot-org, click on Pesticides, then click on Roundup.]

This article takes 25 pages to list all of the toxic effects -- and key scientific studies documenting the toxic effects -- of glyphosate.

One of several hundred alarming facts in this article:

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has identified 74 endangered plant species that it believes could be jeopardized by glyphosate. This list is based on the use of glyphosate on 9 crops, and does not include over 50 other uses."

Ventura County's use of glyphosate to "eradicate arundo may make Ventura County, and certain employees thereof, responsible for the extinction of plant and animal species.

Do county supervisors and staff desire accountability -- moral and legal -- for such a negative and historic outcome?

Sincerely,

Jock Doubleday
Director
Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.
A California 501(c)3 Nonprofit Corporation