Pesticides and Forest Service Fires

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"A U.S. Forest Service official who voiced concerns about alleged pesticide misuse in forests across the Southwest has been fired," reports Associated Press. Doug Parker, who worked for the Forest Service for nearly four decades, was ostensibly fired for "failing to turn in a progress report on time, not training more than one person in a month's time and turning in a report that wasn't properly formatted." But Parker, who filed a whistleblower complaint earlier this year about activities in New Mexico and Arizona forests, said, "The whole reason behind this is I reported some significant pesticide misuse problems to the regional forester and they don't want to have controls over this process. ... They want to be pesticide cowboys and go out there and do what they want to do without consideration of compliance with their own policies, regulations and environmental laws."