{"id":6431,"date":"2026-07-06T16:55:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T23:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.puravidaaquatic.com\/wordpress\/?p=6431"},"modified":"2026-07-06T18:16:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:16:38","slug":"otnp-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.puravidaaquatic.com\/wordpress\/otnp-july-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"OTNP July 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning friends, Romans, countrymen. I come not to praise Caesar but to bury him.
\nA great example of side effects.
\nA chemical that doesn’t drastically affect one animal can have lethal side effects in another animal.
\nhttps:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Indian_vulture_crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.foodandwine.com\/forever-chemicals-pfas-children-bone-density-study-11963513<\/a>
\nIn 2026 Researchers led by the University of North Carolina reported their study of children followed from birth through age 12. Those exposed to higher PFOA were found with lower bone density, with girls appearing more vulnerable than boys. (Experts recommend reducing exposure.) You think?! Sheesh.<\/p>\n


\nCalifornia department of pesticide regulation along with the Federal epa has just approved more PFAS chemicals to be used as pesticides. Lovely. So when our endangered vertebrate animals are exposed to these new pesticides in our forests (Mother Jones) what do you think will happen? Will it affect their bones as well? Do you think that the chemical companies care and now will start testing for whether this could happen to endangered animals?<\/p>\n


\nMy Microbiology PhD thesis was on DNA damage and repair.
\nI Love biology!
\nAnd while I rarely got the best grades in my chemistry classes …
\nDoing the best I could gave me a perspective on the chemicals we are spraying around and how they interact with biology<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude00And so I started a little business PuraVidaAquatic doing outside sources of water non-chemically and became an a bit of a nut about pesticides<\/p>\n

I was talking to a friend about all my perceived horrors of pesticides and started rambling on about the idea that maybe we could generate non-chemical zones where pesticide use was prohibited and they asked how about our national parks?<\/p>\n

The National Parks would be great!
\nBenefits:
\nNot growing food :. Farm lobby wouldn’t be against us.
\nThe animals certainly wouldn’t be against us.
\nmost people I know wouldn’t be against it.
\nWhat could go wrong.<\/p>\n


\nI wrote to Sequoia Everglades and Yosemite asking for their pesticide use.
\nAnd again…
\nAnd again…
\nDo you know the expressions:
\nWillful ignorance.
\nStrategic stupidity.
\nDelay Delay Delay and deny.
\nI could talk for an hour<\/p>\n

One of the things I did while waiting for Federal non-answers was to continually search for assistance. I wrote to Audubon, the Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund and the Center For Biological Diversity. Hoping for interest in also requesting information from the national parks. And the Center For Biological Diversity responded with have you checked out our FOIA search page.
\nhttps:\/\/www.biologicaldiversity.org\/foia-search\/search<\/a><\/p>\n

What an awesome site. I found documents that confirmed that the national parks were permitting\/ or authorizing\/ large amounts of pesticides on their leased land.<\/p>\n

10 tons in practically the first document I found in a very limited data set.
\nU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
\nPesticide Use Proposal Date: 02\/28\/2014
\nPUP Number: R8-11-81660-002<\/p>\n

10 tons to a leased orchard. Permitted for an area that was supposed to be restricted due to endangered animals and fish.
\nViolating their own regulations.
\nA specific reference to the PUP database<\/p>\n

Two and a half years later the national parks refuse to give me current information about pesticide use in the Parks and refuse to give me any PUP records<\/p>\n


\nBut it’s not just the pesticides themselves<\/p>\n

There are:
\nA) Sticker spreaders adjuvants are sort of like toxic honey that then sticks to the leaves better. So an animal hunting food or love gets much more toxic material sticking to its fur and feet.<\/p>\n

B) Forever chemicals: As little as 3 years ago; close to a dozen PFAS\u2019s were also listed \u201cinert\u201d by the EPA.<\/p>\n

C) Antimicrobials (antibiotics) that destroyed the soil food web.<\/p>\n

When an endangered animal gets this toxic honey or forever chemicals on its fur.<\/p>\n

It can’t take a shower.
\nIt must
\nLick it off.
\nOur endangered animals cannot:
\n1 Hire their own lawyers to sue Monsanto.
\n2 Request public documents.
\n3 Go to a doctor for IBS or Parkinson’s, or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)
\n4 They can’t give talks to educate the public.<\/p>\n

I was growing frustrated at the lack of cooperation from the national park service.
\nAnd then the Mother Jones article came out. Mother Jones YouTube Summary.
\n