Spraying Roundup Near Lake Tahoe? A Gold Medalist Is Fighting Back

“I think we're more than pissed. We're ready to come out with our pitchforks,” three-time Olympian Hannah Teter told Mother Jones’ Nate Halverson. “How the heck did they get this approved?”

Snowboarder Hannah Teter, who won gold in the halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, and silver at the 2010 games in Vancouver, has voiced her opposition on Instagram, where she has 275,000 followers, as well as on her Facebook page.

Public uproar has echoed across the Tahoe area since April, when our yearlong Mother Jones investigation revealed that, in California, the fastest-growing use of glyphosate—the main ingredient in Roundup—is to spray forested areas, including this massive new US Forest Service project around Lake Tahoe.

"When I first saw the article that it's coming to Tahoe, my heart sank and I actually prayed like, God, how do we fight this? It's so worrisome because like I do care about nature. From the animals to the insects to the trees, it has us in the community, up in arms," Teter told Nate.

People in Tahoe, worried about glyphosate's potential health and environmental harms, have begun organizing to slow or stop the Forest Service’s plan. That effort includes Kelly Ryerson—Glyphosate Girl on Instagram—an influential voice who visited the White House earlier this year with other members of the MAHA coalition to urge President Trump to call off his support of the controversial herbicide.

For more on our investigation into the Forest Service's use of glyphosate, head to MotherJones.com