Photographs of the Gold Beach community

James Aldridge, 46, stands in his bedroom with the various medications he is required to take for liver disease, which he says is due to herbicides that were sprayed on his land and into his water supply.
John Burns manages a growing amount of documentation related to herbicide spraying in Cedar Valley, Oregon.
John Burns checks on water collected from a nearby creek on his neighbor James Aldridge’s property. Burns said the unusable water contains chemicals that were sprayed across the valley, residents that don’t have an underground water source face uncertainty that water on their land is safe for drinking and bathing.
Master gardener Mary Jacobs and volunteer Debianne Harpole work in the garden at Riley Creek Elementary School in Gold Beach, Oregon. Herbicide was sprayed near the school in October 2013. Some parents and administrators at the school want the timber companies to stop spraying on school days or at least to notify the school when they’ll be spraying. The school, “held together with string and wire,” says principal Tom Denning, has fallen on hard times due in part to the decrease of logging in the area.
Chuck Ott, a resident of Cedar Valley, Oregon, stands inside a greenhouse where he legally grows medical marijuana to help battle nausea and illness he suffers. He says the herbicide sprayed during logging operations in October 2013 made him sick.
Melissa Pitchford and her daughter check the stream where the family draws drinking water. After the spray, the Pitchfords filled a second refrigerator with gallons of bottled water that they drank for months, fearing their stream was contaminated.
Melissa Pitchford enters the family’s stable with her son in Cedar Valley, Oregon. Their two horses, panicked by the noise of a helicopter in October 2013, escaped, and when Melissa and her daughter chased after them, they gulped down air she says tasted like chemicals. By the end of the day, one of the horses was blind in one eye. Within the next few months, the other lost more than 400 pounds.
Molly, a one-year-old Spanish Paso Fino filly, became blind in one eye after helicopters sprayed herbicide in the valley.
The Pitchford family waves goodbye to Dr. John Pitchford as he leaves their home in Cedar Valley, Oregon. Last October, the boys ran outside when they heard a helicopter overhead. The helicopter was spraying herbicide over private logging forest. After the spraying, the little boys couldn’t sleep; Melissa, the mother, was nauseous for 11 days and dizzy for a month; John had abdominal pain. Melissa’s mother and grandmother continue to suffer the effects of the spray. “It feels like we’re continually still battling this,” Melissa says.
The Pitchford family at their home in Cedar Valley, Oregon.
John Burns reaches out to touch a tree that was adversely affected by herbicide spraying during October 2013 in Cedar Valley, Oregon. Burns says plant life in the path of the herbicide spray was decimated, an intended consequence of the chemicals, but some collateral damage also included healthy trees and plants that are native to the region.
Keith Wright stands atop a hill where he witnessed helicopters spraying herbicides across Cedar Valley, Oregon. He came into direct contact with the chemicals while on the hill and a short time later became sick.

In October 2013, a helicopter whirred over a clear-cut near Cedar Valley, Oregon. It sprayed herbicides to kill weeds, shrubs and trees that compete with the Douglas-fir and other trees harvested by the state’s $20 billion timber industry. Dozens of people in the nearby community also came into contact with the sprayed chemicals, and many are still reporting adverse health effects.

One person who has had deteriorating health since the spraying is James Aldridge. He was a full-time logger for 27 years and active fisherman and hunter until the clear-cut behind his home was sprayed. When he went to check his water system after the spraying, his skin felt like it was burning: “It feels like battery acid in my joints.” He’s been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, he throws up almost every day, and he’s never been able to go back to work. Aldridge and his wife, Pam, used to get drinking water from a small stream that flows across timber company land and behind their house. The couple no longer drinks the water, but they still bathe in it because they have no other option.

While other states require private timber companies to use buffers around residential areas and to notify the public of spraying, Oregon requires buffers solely for the protection of fish and surface water. Many residents of Cedar Valley are advocating for tighter restrictions.

These photos tell this and other stories of those affected by herbicide spraying in Cedar Valley near Gold Beach, Oregon. Read the full feature story by Rebecca Clarren here.

This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Photographs of the Gold Beach community.

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