Northwest Center For Alternatives To Pesticides

As a mother I appreciate NCAP's diligence in reporting on and championing for pesticide alternatives. I enjoy their newsletters and updates and especially appreciate their community events. Thank you NCAP for all you do to make our world safer for our children.

As a physician, I am very concerned about the impact of pesticides on our health. From Parkinson's disease to learning disabilities in children, pesticides have grave impact. Some like DDT banned for over 40 years are still detected in the breast milk of 93% of American women . I've come to rely on and refer to NCAP's excellent resources and advocacy to make our world a healthier place!

I have been a donor to NCAP for many years and trust them to look out for our interests and to inform communties how to best provide healthy altrenatives to the rampant use pesticides. I've changed my own habits after reading articles in their newsletter and website. I've been impressed with their dedication to bringing real facts about the dangerous use of pesticides all over the Northwest and believe that every region of the country needs to have the same level of awareness. I proudly post a NACP "Pesticide Free Zone" sign in my front garden for all to see!

I live in Central Texas and live a hectic life just like everybody else. I make the best effort I can to stay informed about what is affecting our environment and I find ways I can change my life style or influence others. NCAP is incredibly informative and keeps me informed. I am certainly not going to learn from the usual media available, the usual TV and radio stations don't even try to help people learn what is harmful and in their own homes. I hope that some day I won't walk in to places that sell me my groceries and plants, selling aisles full of poison. I was in a big store yesterday to buy bird seed. I felt so helpless seeing people trying to decide what poison they would buy to use on their lawns and in their homes. Most people are not informed of the dangers they expose themselves and loved ones when they use these poisonous products. And not to mention the environmental damage these products unleash on the environment. The NCAP needs all they help they can get to educate Americans. If only it was affordable to make a public announcement daily that all people could hear; it would help them make better choices. I was just saying to my husband how incredibly insane it is that people have access to so much poison. And I hate to say it but most people don't read or follow instructions, and it makes these easily available poisons much more dangerous.

NCAP is a great organization trying to improve our environment and the health of our nation. Their goals can help protect so many aspects of our environment and food chain. Thank you NCAP!

I first learned of NCAP while working for Pesticide Action Network in San Francisco in the 90s. NCAP was a member of our steering committee. When I moved to Eugene OR, I immediately called the organization to offer my volunteer services. I have always been amazed by what this organization accomplishes with such a small staff. NCAP is even more relevant to my life now that I'm raising a family in Eugene. I am especially appreciative of their work related to pesticide-free parks and their Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools program. I'm grateful for NCAP's efforts to reduce the pesticides that are used where my children play and go to school. I have referred many people to NCAP as they provide the public with valuable information on alternatives to pesticides in the home and yard.

I first came across Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides a number of years ago. As a Landscape Professional I was looking for accurate information on the products I was considering applying. I have been informed and am able to reply with confidence and factual data to those who question the safety of these products. It is also wonderful to hear about and be a part of a movement that is involved in changing our world! I am a proud supporter of this organization, despite the fact that I live on the other side of the country. I wish I could find an organization such as this here.

NCAP is a small organization with a big reach. The Coalition (now Center) has been involved in many aspects of pesticide research, application of research to specific programs areas (such as pesticide-free public parks and schools), crop-specific work (especially with potatoes in Idaho), and legal action in conjunction with other organizations, especially focused on threats to endangered fish species in the Northwest.

This organization accomplishes a lot of good things with a small staff, and has to scramble for funds (grants, memberships, donations) along with a myriad of other organizations.

I am very grateful for the work that NCAP does to protect salmon and to assist growers in making the transition to organic or at least less-pesticide-intensive production.

I have admired the work of this wonderful team for 30 years. NCAP has consistently displayed an uncanny talent for identifying the biggest threats to publilc health and environmental quality posed by pesticides and then finding community based leverage points to effect possitive change (ie, reduced pesticide use). NCAP has succeeded in applying it's guided grass roots approach to stopping agent orange spraying on public and private forest lands in the Northwest, getting dangerous pesticides out of schools, achieving pesticide free public parks, improving aquatic habitat by holding federal agencies to enforce the law, and many other situations.

I'm trying to think of my favorite accomplishment of this wonderful non-profit but have not exactly succeeded - I have two favorites.
Reducing pesticide use in potato production: NCAP demonstrated to the world that an environmental organization can take a proactive approach to reducing pollution by working with potato farmers and agricultural science community that supports them to introduce biologically sound alternative cultural methods, in this case growing green manure crops that improve soil health and reduce disease pressure. NCAP devoted years of patient dedication building the key relationships, securing funding for research and field trials, organizing field days, educating farmers, policy makers, and the general public all of which eventually resulted in a huge reduction of pesticide use along with improvements in crop quality and farm profit. This is good work and serves as an inspiring example of how to effect possitive change by working with the people who are actually involved in the situations that toxic pesticides are used.
My other favorite of NCAP's many laudible accomplishments is their long leadership in providing technical and legal information regarding pesticides to the public. NCAP has always a huge and well organized library and has served as a wonderful resource for reliable information through its publications, it's website, and by responding to direct inquiries. This is a team that does it's homework and empowers the public with good information and, when appropriate, with grass roots organizing and action.
Good people doing real good work in a vital area of concern - NCAP dearly deserves our support.