The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its draft Insecticide Strategy for public comment on July 25, marking a significant step in the agency’s efforts to adopt early protections for federally endangered and threatened species. The draft strategy outlines measures that EPA will consider when registering new insecticides or reevaluating existing ones, targeting over 850 species listed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS).
“Ensuring the safe use of insecticides is a critical part of EPA’s mission to protect endangered species and the environment,” said Jake Li, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “This draft strategy is another major step in the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to protect endangered species, support farmers and other insecticide users, and provide critical environmental protections for communities across the country.”
The draft strategy aims to create a more efficient approach to evaluating and protecting FWS-listed species near agricultural areas where approximately 34 million pounds of insecticides are applied annually. It incorporates lessons learned from last year’s draft herbicide strategy to minimize agricultural herbicides' impacts on listed species.
Mitigation options in the draft strategy consider various factors, including farmers who already implement measures to reduce pesticide runoff and those located in less runoff-prone areas. These measures include practices recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Conservation Service as well as state or private stewardship initiatives effective at reducing pesticide runoff.
Using updated information and processes, the draft insecticide strategy determines whether an insecticide will impact a listed species by considering factors such as habitat location, reproductive needs, potential environmental distribution of pesticides, and possible impacts on species.
Once finalized, this strategy is expected to expedite future ESA consultations with FWS by identifying mitigations even before completing the consultation process—a procedure that can take five years or more. The EPA and FWS plan to formalize their understanding of how this strategy can streamline future ESA consultations for insecticides.
At the beginning of 2021, EPA faced nearly 20 lawsuits covering thousands of pesticide products due to its longstanding failure to meet ESA obligations for pesticides. These lawsuits have since been resolved through new approaches introduced by the Biden-Harris Administration.
The draft Insecticide Strategy Framework is available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2024-0299 on EPA's website for public comment over a period of 60 days.
For further details on how EPA’s pesticide program protects endangered species, visit EPA's website.
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