Legislation seeks to provide Oregon farmers with an alternative to common pesticide

Oregon State Capitol (Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter)

Kathy Freeborn Hadley doesn’t spray her grass seed fields near Salem with chlorpyrifos every season. But when sod webworms burrow into the plant, she said the pesticide is a valuable aid.

“We don’t really have an alternative,” she said. “It’s a tool in the toolbox.”

Now, a bill moving through the Oregon Legislature seeks to help farmers like Hadley find an off-ramp from the commonly-used pesticide that’s…