Commonsense Measures Could Prevent Extinction of Vulnerable Species 

September 29, 2024 – WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released its Vulnerable Species Action Plan, setting forth a blueprint for helping to prevent the extinction of 27 of the plants and animals most imperiled by pesticides. This is the latest move in the EPA pesticides office’s work to start complying with its Endangered Species Act obligations.

Thursday’s plan establishes a framework for practical, on-the-ground mitigation measures to protect 18 plants and nine animals from pesticides. To mitigate spray drift, for example, the EPA would establish a buffer around the species. Mitigations for direct harms to vulnerable species in key habitats will be defined in maps identifying geographically specific pesticide use limitation areas. The EPA did not release maps or identify avoidance areas but said it will put out maps in the coming months.

“Pesticide-vulnerable endangered plants and animals obviously need to be protected from pesticides in their most important homes, and the EPA’s plan says it intends to do just that,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I’m more hopeful for these 27 species now that commonsense pesticide use limits are planned for them in the places they need to survive. But Big Ag reflexively attacks any efforts to protect endangered wildlife, and it’ll surely go after this plan, so I hope the EPA stands strong for these species.”

Among the species included in the plan are Attwater’s greater prairie chickens, Buena Vista Lake ornate shrews, rusty patched bumblebees, Wyoming toads, and five endangered plant species from Lake Wales Ridge in Florida.

Thursday’s plan also clarifies how it builds on the EPA’s other strategies, such as for herbicides and insecticides, to protect the species most vulnerable to the 1 billion pounds of pesticides used each year in the United States. It explains that in regulatory actions, the strategies would be applied first, followed by the VSAP. The VSAP and strategies are not self-implementing but rather designed to be incorporated by the EPA into individual regulatory actions to help rectify its decades of not complying with the Endangered Species Act.

Pesticides are known to play a major role in the “insect apocalypse,” harming bees, butterflies and countless other “nontarget” insects. They are also a factor in the imperilment of many other species that have had to be given the Act’s protection. California spotted owls, for example, were recently listed in part because of harms caused by pesticides.

“Pesticides play an outsized role in driving the heartbreaking extinction crisis, but I’m hopeful that the EPA’s strategy will be implemented in a manner that gives species on the brink a shot at survival,” said Burd. “The EPA has to do all it can to ensure that no species vanishes because of the pesticides the agency’s in charge of regulating. This is just a really reasonable plan to ensure that pesticide use doesn’t drive these plants and animals extinct.”

For decades the EPA has failed to comply with the Endangered Species Act’s requirements to consult with expert wildlife agencies to reduce the harm of pesticides to protected species.

As a result of ongoing pressure and a series of court decisions, the agency released a comprehensive workplan to address how it would meet the challenge of protecting endangered species from pesticides. In addition to the herbicide, rodenticide and new insecticide strategies, it has also initiated pilot programs focused on reforming the pesticide-approval process to correct violations of the Endangered Species Act.

These actions stem from a historic legal agreement with the Center that committed the EPA to a suite of proposed reforms to better protect endangered species from pesticides.

The agreement marked the culmination of the most comprehensive Endangered Species Act case ever filed against the EPA, requiring it to develop strategies to reduce the harm to endangered species from broad groups of pesticides, including herbicides and insecticides, while taking further steps to target meaningful, on-the-ground protections to endangered species most vulnerable to harm from pesticides.

These measures to reduce pesticide harms will benefit endangered species and humans alike, as these chemicals are linked to severe health harms in farmworkers and rural communities.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Source: Center for Biological Diversity