A community meeting in Hansville heated up as neighbors demanded an industrial timber company hear their concerns over the planned spraying of Roundup.

The meeting was not supposed to include a 'question & answer' session, but neighbors at the Greater Hansville Community Center refused to allow otherwise.

Pope Resources held the meeting, they said, because a Facebook campaign waged against them was spreading inaccurate information about their plans to spray Roundup and other herbicides at a nearby timber stand.

The trees are 40-years-old and it's standard protocol, Pope told the crowd. The company said it's open to alternatives but hasn't been able to find any.

"We'd rather not. It's scary for people. It's risky for us. It's expensive. It's not some free thing sitting in the back room where I'm saying, 'I can't wait to do some spraying,'" a Pope representative said. "It's not that at all. Our options and alternatives over the course of the last 40 years have gotten very narrow."

Pope blames noxious weeds for hurting tree growth, and a lack of labor forces to do anything but spray herbicides. They blamed President Trump and ICE for making labor issues even more difficult.

The neighbors recently formed the Kitsap Environmental Coalition and were successful at securing a hearing before the Pollution Control Board in early 2019. Pope has delayed the spraying pending the outcome of that hearing.

They're not the only ones trying to stop herbicide spraying on timberland. Another group of community activists is fighting the same issue with Weyerhaeuser near Lake Cavanaugh.