Turns out that fluorescent red stuff that planes drop on forest fires isn’t all-natural. A federal judge has ordered that the U.S. Forest Service complete an adequate environmental assessment of just how bad for the eco-system the toxic spray is. The USFS will continue using the fire retardant this summer, and will have to complete their survey by 2011.

“If a farmer took a 3,000-gallon truckload of liquefied fertilizer and dumped it in a creek, that farmer would be in jail in a heartbeat,” Stahl said. “But when the Forest Service does it, everybody looks the other way because it is a war on fire.”

via Get Outdoors