Events

Rally and Presentation Before Sacramento City Council:  August 8, 2007, 5:30 pm.  --  On August 1, the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito Vector Control District finished aerially spraying over 50,000 acres in Sacramento County for West Nile virus. These aerial pesticides are unproven, unsafe and we deserve local control to determine what mosquito methods work best for our communities. Unfortunately, the mosquito season isn't over yet! The season tends to peak in mid-August, so you can expect the District to make the case for pesticide spraying, both on the ground and in the air. This is where you come in...

We need to push the Sacramento City Council to pass a resolution to opt-out of future aerial pesticide spraying until it can be proven BOTH safe and effective. This will send the message to the Mosquito District, our state officials and other local governments that we need to better examine the dangers of aerial pesticide spraying and make better public health policy. We are giving a presentation to the Council next Thursday night, and we need your presence. The more people in the room, the better the message to our City Council members. Even if you are from areas outside Sacramento, there's value in you being in the room. We will rally outside City Hall @ 5:30pm and then head into the meeting.  City Hall is located at 915 "I" Street, near the corner of "I" and 9th in downtown Sacramento.

If you live in the city, please send a note to your council member in advance in support of the opt-out resolution. You can find contact info for your councilmember at http://www.cityofsacramento.org/council/. If you are able to meet with council members in-person in the next week, please contact Eve Bowers: bowerseve@yahoo.com or Paul Schramski: paul@pesticidewatch.org. We are scheduling lobby visits to convince them to vote the right way.

Also, to continue to draw attention to the issue before the meeting, please send a letter to the Sacramento Bee: opinion@sacbee.com and stress our key points: These pesticides are unsafe, unproven and we deserve local control over aerial spraying.

Everyone has been doing great work so far to get the word out about the dangers of aerial spraying. Keep it up! We hope to see you at 5:30pm at Sacramento City Hall (915 I St) on Thursday, August 9th.

Please contact Paul Schramski directly if you have any questions.

Post a flier in a conspicuous place:  download a flier in PowerPoint format, or see one in html format.

--        
Paul Schramski
State Director
Pesticide Watch
Pesticide Watch Education Fund
916.551.1883 office
916.216.1082 mobile
paul@pesticidewatch.org
www.pesticidewatch.org
www.RefuseToUseChemLawn.org

Rally Before the Sacramento City Council: Tuesday, July 31, 2007.  Show up at 5:30 to protest the spraying.  In front of City chambers, 9th and I Street.

Community meeting with SYMVCD Officials:  Wednesday, July 5, 2006, in the Blanchard Room at the Library, 315 E 14th Street.  The purpose is to train people to look for mosquito habitat, divide up the City and UCD campus into sections, and regularly patrol these areas in order to try to keep the mosquito population down and obviate the perceived need for spraying.  Please attend.  The more of us who are involved the smaller areas we need to cover.

Background:  Last month Stop West Nile Spraying Now (SWNSN) presented the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito Vector Control District (District) with a plan for community involvement to fight West Nile Virus (WNV) and avoid the District's indiscriminant spraying of pesticides in urban areas.  At the District's June 20th Board Meeting, the District accepted the citizens' offer for community involvement.  The District staff will provide the citizens a short training session on identifying and reporting existing and potential mosquito breeding sources and the method of reporting the location. Upon the conclusion of the training session/meeting, the volunteers will divide the City into small sections to search for existing and potential mosquito breeding sources.  The citizens will also discuss with District staff other opportunities for citizen involvement in assisting the District control the mosquito population and reduce breeding sites.

SWNSN invites all those interested in assisting to attend the meeting and training session.  SWNSN also encourages the City and UC Davis to send representatives to the meeting.  Elected officials of Davis, Woodland and Yolo County and the UC Davis Chancellor were also provided copies of the model plan.

SWNSN has been working on this model plan since last year.  Members have talked extensively to public health officials and representatives from communities across the country that have chosen not to use adulticide pesticides to kill adult mosquitoes and that have instead targeted the mosquito larvae and taken other prophylactic measures to control breeding habitat with more success at stopping the transmission of WNV than nearby communities that sprayed adulticide.  From these conversations SWNSN developed a plan for community involvement where citizens will assist the District in its efforts to locate and eradicate mosquito-breeding habitat.

The community volunteers believe this plan can be used as a basis for citizen involvement throughout the District and beyond and look forward to working hand in hand with the District to ensure a healthy mosquito-free and adulticide-free season.

For further information regarding Stop West Nile Spraying Now's proposal to the District, please contact Don Mooney at (530) 758-2377.

Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito Vector Control District has scheduled several meetings (it calls them workshops), open to the public, to "discuss the Mosquito and Mosquito-borne disease Management Plan."  This is a chance to try to influence the plan, but the times of the meetings have been changing and little warning has typically been given.  Therefore, please look on the SYMVCD website for the latest information:  www. fightthebite.net.

As of January 21, a workshop has been scheduled in Yolo County:

Monday, February 6th                                                              
6:00 to 9:30 p.m.                                                             
Yolo County Administration Center                                                                                                                   
625 Court Street - Room 206  
Woodland  

Before attending it would be wise to confirm that this has not been changed – www.fightthebite.net.       

Farmers Market, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, at Central Park in Davis.  Discuss the risks of spraying with volunteers at our table. On most Wednesdays we are there from about 5:30 to 8:00, and on most Saturdays we are there from about 9:00 to 12:30.

January Board of Trustees meeting for the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District (SYMVCD).  1:15 on January 17, at the SYMVCD's office in Elk Grove at 8631 Bond Road.

October Board of Trustees meeting for the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District (SYMVCD).  1:15 on October 18, at the SYMVCD's office in Elk Grove at 8631 Bond Road.  See the agenda.

September Board of Trustees meeting for the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District (SYMVCD).  1:15 on September 20, at the SYMVCD's office in Elk Grove at 8631 Bond Road.  A possible window of opportunity to encourage the SYMVCD Board to open up the process for critical review and revision of their Mosquito and Mosquito Born Disease Management Plan to eliminate the option for future use of pesticide spraying for reduction of adult mosquito populations.

City Meeting at Davis City Hall, 7-9PM, 23 August 2005.
This will be a presentation by the Sacramento Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control Districtis and is expected to be a staged media event to claim how safe the pesticide spraying is. Come and show your opposition.

Public Forum at the Veterans Memorial Center , 7-9PM, 22 August 2005. Your chance to speak up and to hear what others have to say about the effects of the spraying.