On August 20, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its final Herbicide Strategy, a pioneering initiative aimed at safeguarding over 900 federally endangered and threatened species from the potential impacts of herbicides. This strategy will be employed when registering new herbicides and during the reevaluation of existing ones under the registration review process. The strategy integrates extensive stakeholder input to ensure protection for species while maintaining a variety of pesticides for agricultural use.
“Finalizing our first major strategy for endangered species is a historic step in EPA meeting its Endangered Species Act obligations,” stated Jake Li, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs at the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “By identifying protections earlier in the pesticide review process, we are far more efficiently protecting listed species from the millions of pounds of herbicides applied each year and reducing burdensome uncertainty for the farmers that use them.”
The Biden-Harris Administration's new methods for protecting endangered species have led to resolutions in multiple lawsuits against EPA. Historically, EPA's piecemeal approach to complying with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) resulted in numerous litigations and uncertainties regarding pesticide availability. At the start of 2021, EPA faced nearly two dozen lawsuits involving thousands of pesticide products due to its failure to meet ESA obligations. Some court rulings even removed pesticides from the market until compliance was ensured. Currently, all but one lawsuit has been resolved.
In July 2023, EPA released a draft version of this strategy for public comment and received extensive feedback emphasizing both protection for listed species and minimizing impacts on farmers. Based on these comments, significant improvements were made to make the strategy more understandable, incorporate updated data and analyses, increase flexibility for users implementing mitigation measures, and reduce additional mitigation requirements where appropriate practices are already in place or runoff potential is low.
The focus is on conventional herbicides used in agriculture within the lower 48 states due to their widespread application—approximately 264 million acres treated in 2022 according to USDA data—and on species listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). For marine species listed by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, EPA is addressing impacts through a separate initiative.
The finalized strategy includes various mitigation measures such as cover crops, conservation tillage, windbreaks, adjuvants, and berms to address runoff concerns effectively. It also recognizes that those participating in conservation programs or working with specialists may need fewer additional mitigations.
Using updated information processes allows EPA to assess whether an herbicide will impact a listed species based on habitat location, survival needs (such as food or pollinators), environmental dispersion patterns of pesticides, and potential impacts upon reaching these species.
Additionally, this strategy aims to expedite ESA compliance through future consultations with FWS by pre-identifying mitigations before completing consultations—a process that can often exceed five years. Formal agreements between EPA and FWS are anticipated to streamline future ESA consultations further.
While this strategy itself does not impose direct restrictions or requirements on pesticide use, it will inform mitigations during new registrations and reviews of conventional herbicides. To assist applicators with adopting these mitigations initially perceived as complex, EPA plans to release educational materials alongside an online mitigation menu website later this year detailing practical implementation examples.
The final Herbicide Strategy documents can be accessed via docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0365 at Regulations.gov.
For further details about how EPA’s pesticide program protects endangered species, visit their official website.
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