Hi Muneer,
In “Poisoning the Forest for the Trees,” a Reveal episode from April, we exposed how the government and logging companies are spraying record amounts of the herbicide glyphosate—a.k.a. Roundup— on California’s forests, exposing workers, campers, and wildlife to a chemical that the World Health Organization says is a probable carcinogen.
After the story aired, I heard from people all over the state, sharing their stories about herbicides being sprayed in the woods where they hike and live. Some burly bikers even came looking for me. They wanted to shake my hand, because it was being sprayed near the working-class mountain town where they lived and they appreciated us exposing what was happening right in their backyard.
It turns out, a lot of people are upset about it. I got emails from people whose drinking water is from creeks directly downstream from where the spraying is happening.
Many of them had no idea this was happening, and they were understandably angry when they heard the Reveal podcast or radio episode, read our investigation in Mother Jones, or came across our short video documentary.
As Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) told me: “It’s bullshit. I’m really mad.”
She and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) sent a letter to the US Forest Service demanding answers to questions that our investigation exposed.
This is exactly why we do this work. You deserve to know what’s happening in your backyard. And we can craft these exposés because we’re funded by supporters just like you.
