American Notes ENVIRONMENT

During California's war against the citrus-destroying Mediterranean fruit fly, community groups have beseeched state officials to stop spraying the insecticide Malathion in populated areas. But the bureaucrats at the California department of food and agriculture refused, insisting that the . spraying poses no threat to human beings. Now at last the state's anti-medfly force has been induced to yield a bit -- to avoid possible harm to an endangered species named the Stephens' kangaroo rat.

Warned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that Malathion-base spray could put the 3-in.-long nocturnal rodent at risk (and the state in violation of the Federal Endangered Species Act), officials agreed to avoid aerial spraying of the area where the kangaroo rat is found, a 5-sq.-mi. region of Riverside County 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles. While they bear no malice toward the rats, anti-sprayers are astounded by the decision. The government, said Adelaide Nimitz, president of Families Opposed to Chemical Urban Spraying, would rather "protect the rats and spray people."