CRD Watch Homepage

The BC Gov’t wants to spray Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, Kamloops, and Interior with 7300 litres of a chemical called Foray 38B

Spraying will commence in May and June 2024, unless we stop them.

Janine Bandcroft
Feb 27, 2024

The BC NDP government is planning to spray 7,300 litres of chemicals – from the sky, by airplane -onto a dozen BC communities in May and June this year.

These communities include Greater Victoria, Salt Spring, Cowichan Bay / Cobble Hill, Nanaimo, Qualicum, Tsawwassen, Langley, Kamloops, West Kelowna and Cranbrook, and will impact tens of thousands of residents plus watersheds, animals, birds, insects, and fish-bearing streams.

What are the short and long term public health and environmental consequences of this aerial spray?

Government representatives say that use of Foray 48B, intended to eradicate the “Spongy Moth,” is safe to spray, using crop duster style airplanes, over homes, schools, playgrounds, daycares, hospitals, care homes, forests, and waterways.

But how safe is it?

Foray 48B contains Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki), and also undisclosed proprietary ingredients. Studies and research indicate that Foray 48B is potentially harmful to non-target species and animals. Aerial spraying of this product has been banned in Norway.

We are unable to research data regarding the undisclosed proprietary ingredients.

If you agree that citizens – in a functioning democracy – have a right to voice our concerns, and deserve answers from our elected officials, join us to demand that the BC Government drops the Ministry of Forests’ million-dollar pesticide boondoggle and opts for a different method to manage spongy moth populations.

Keep our air clean and our communities safe!

What you can do

–Visit COMMUNITIES UNITED FOR CLEAN AIR (CUFCA) on Facebook and Instagram

–Review CUFCA documents for detailed information and data pertaining to this clean air campaign

–Contact your MLA and express your concerns

–Join a canvassing team and go door to door in the spray zones to raise awareness in your community

–Subscribe to the government email list to receive their updates, including spray dates, directly

–Stay informed. Join the CUFCA mailing list by writing to communitiesunitedforcleanair@gmail.com

For more information

Review CUFCA documents including a February 2024 letter sent to BC Ministry of Forests and supporting documentation from Dr. Per Einar Granum, a leading scientist and advisor to the Government of Norway, where aerial application of Btk is no longer permitted

Visit Call to Action Cranbrook: Foray 48B is being promoted as safe, but is it?

Learn from Saltspring Island residents who successfully stopped aerial spraying in 2006

Listen to 2023 Interview with Communities United for Clean Air (CUFCA) founder, Dr. Jennifer Tynan

From 2001: Impact of Bt corn pollen on monarch butterfly populations: A risk assessment

The monarch butterfly controversy: scientific interpretations of a phenomenon

From 2023: The Monarch Butterfly has a new status in Canada: Endangered

Monarch butterfly population drops in 2023-24 census ahead of spring migration, lowest since 2013

From 2024: Monarch Butterfly Moves from Special Concern to Endangered under Federal Species at Risk Act