Lessons Learned (He/Him)

Locals didn’t think Roundup was being sprayed near Lake Tahoe. So @natethecurious went to find out. Nate dug up maps from the Forest Service's website, and headed to a spot where one of them indicated spraying might already be happening. Public uproar has echoed across the Tahoe area since April, when our yearlong Mother Jones investigation revealed that, in California, the fastest-growing use of glyphosate—the main ingredient in Roundup—is to spray forested areas, including this massive new project around Lake Tahoe. As the public outcry grew over the past few weeks, news begin circulating on social media that the Forest Service was backing off. “They cancelled the plan!" one person wrote. "People showed up to meetings, called our representatives and it’s finally cancelled. OUR VOICES MATTERED ON THIS ONE.” But that wasn't true. At Sierra-at-Tahoe, Nate stood on a mountainside that clearly had been doused in glyphosate. The plants around him were nearly all dead—killed with the controversial herbicide, which the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer has deemed a probable human carcinogen—and that a 2020 report from the US Environmental Protection Agency said likely harms 93 percent of endangered species. You can read Nate's full report at MotherJones.com.

@afneil @MargotLJParker