Capistrano Unified School District has confirmed, in writing, that it has paused the use of every pesticide, herbicide, and rodenticide on district-owned and maintained property. Not two products. All of them. Until further notice.
Here is the district’s own statement, issued after its most recent Board of Trustees meeting:
“After public comment and discussion by our Board of Trustees, Superintendent, and District staff at last night’s meeting of the Board, Capistrano Unified School District has extended the pause of the use of all pesticides, herbicides, and rodenticides on District-owned and maintained properties until further notice while we continue to review our practices and evaluate available alternatives. This pause was initiated in July.
Our goal is to move toward organic products and practices wherever they are safe, effective, and practical, while continuing to evaluate the safest available methods for addressing landscape and pest management needs.
The District will provide an update to the community during the meeting of the Board of Trustees in October. The District will not resume the use of these chemical products before that public discussion and community update occurs.”
Capistrano Unified School District, August 2026
Read that again with your kids’ school in mind. The fields they run on at recess, the planters by the front office, the fence line by the pickup lane. Paused. And CUSD says it will ask every public agency and organization that maintains space on or next to district property to honor the same pause.
That last part matters in Ladera Ranch, because a lot of our shared ground sits right up against school ground.
Why this is the argument
The most common thing we hear against a full pause is that it can’t be done. The weeds win, the fields go brown, the cost is too high, the alternatives don’t work.
CUSD runs dozens of campuses across south Orange County. It has budgets, contractors, and playing fields that get more foot traffic than any greenbelt in Ladera Ranch. And it decided the safest thing to do while it studies the question is to stop, evaluate, and only come back to chemicals after a public discussion. That is a school district saying, in plain terms, this is doable.
LARMAC’s current pause covers two products. The advisory committee is doing real work and we appreciate it. But the district that maintains the ground on the other side of the fence has set the bar, and the bar is “all of them, until we’ve looked.”
What you can do
The LARMAC Board votes on this September 9. Between now and then, the single most useful thing you can do takes one tap:
Go to protectladera.org and answer the one-question survey. Yes or no: do you support banning the routine use of conventional pesticides and herbicides in Ladera Ranch parks, greenbelts, and open spaces and moving to organic and non-chemical alternatives?
Then sign up on the same page so we can tell you when and where to show up on September 9.
CUSD did it for the schools. Let’s ask LARMAC to do it for the rest of the neighborhood.
Protect Ladera