In April 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its Workplan for ensuring its regulatory actions involving pesticides would, over time, comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA). On November 16, 2022, EPA issued a Workplan Update for public comment, which built on the Workplan and explained steps EPA is and will be taking to better protect non-target species.
On February 14, 2023, EPN submitted comments welcoming the new efforts that the EPA proposes to improve compliance of its regulatory decisions for pesticides with the ESA. We suggest that the agency clarify the scope of the Update and prioritize chemicals for ESA reviews. We recommend that EPA use existing biological opinions that address the use of pesticides and their impact on listed species and urge EPA to collaborate with partners to develop a robust plan to use web-distributed labeling to communicate more effectively with pesticide users, extension personnel and other key endangered species protection groups when using pesticides.
Read the comments.