By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter

Farmers, ranchers and other applicators, including homeowners, can expect to see changes to common pesticide labels in the coming months and years to accommodate endangered species. These changes will likely include additional mitigation measures that must be taken to apply pesticides in select areas.

In August, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its herbicide strategy.

This is the first step to reconcile the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) with the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The agency released its draft insecticide strategy in July and accepted public comments on the proposal through late September. Additional strategies will be proposed for rodenticides and fungicides.

The strategies outline actions EPA plans to take when renewing existing pesticides and registering new ones.

“EPA, according to law, must consult these pesticide registration review products according to the Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, through the years, EPA has not been doing these consultations,” John Walt Boatright, director of Government Affairs for the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), said. “Due to ongoing litigation, and what is being called the mega suit settlement agreement, EPA is trying to implement strategies through different classes of pesticides to ensure their compliance with the Endangered Species Act.”

The strategies outline how EPA will introduce new approaches to mitigation that farmers, ranchers, and other applicators must abide by in order to use certain pesticides in certain areas of the country. These mitigations may include new buffer requirements, water quality considerations and even prohibitions in some areas.

Because the strategies are being rolled out months apart and are being implemented as pesticide registrations come up for renewal or registration, the label changes may not be evident right away.

“Now that the herbicide strategy has been finalized, as herbicides are being reviewed at EPA, which they’re required to do on average every 12-15 years, we will see new mitigation measures proposed that will be added to the label based on the specific characteristics of that active ingredient,” Boatright said. “That will mean that farmers and ranchers, in addition to others involved in the process, will have to pay particular attention to what is on that label and what they will be allowed to do or what they may be required to do in order to apply that herbicide safely.”

Boatright said there are concerns that some of EPA’s mitigation measures may be costly or ineffective.

“That’s one of the chief criticisms we’ve levied throughout the process. As EPA has been developing and coordinating with stakeholders on this, it will take a lot of time, but it will be quite costly and may introduce new inefficiencies in their farming operations to apply these mitigation measures,” Boatright said.

There are also concerns with a limited number of mitigation options.

“For instance, one of the few options that EPA has is a vegetative filter strip,” Boatright said. “If that strip is required to be 30-foot in width, it’s quite possible that, depending on the location of the field and the size of the field, that’s going to eat into productive land to apply, implement and maintain that vegetative strip.”

Boatright said there are concerns that some of the mitigation measures, or restrictions on use, may increase pesticide resistance.

“Also, you’re providing a conducive environment, potentially, for pests and disease to live right next to that crop,” Boatright said. “That’s just one example of several in a host of options EPA has provided in their proposal that causes some concern and introduces new additional costs into a farm economy where we’re already seeing pretty substantial high input costs.”

The strategy could potentially limit the crop protection tools available to famers in some areas.

“If they start limiting, or perhaps even potentially proposing to terminate or cancel, certain registrations because of this new approach or providing an insufficient list of practical mitigation measures that farmers can implement, it’s going to result in an effective inability to grow the safe and abundant food supply that we’ve long enjoyed in the United States,” Boatright said.

There are still many unknowns as to how the strategies will impact specific herbicides and insecticides and whether they’re going to be practical or feasible in many areas, Boatright noted.

American farmers and ranchers work every day to protect the environment and wildlife. Boatright said many remain concerned with how EPA’s actions could impact their livelihoods and American agriculture.

“Fundamentally, we still have a lot of concerns with this final approach for herbicides, and we continue to have those similar concerns with the draft insecticide strategy,” he said.

The herbicide and insecticide strategies are similar.

According to EPA, they’re a first major step in EPA meeting its Endangered Species Act obligations.

“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,” Jake Li, deputy assistant administrator for Pesticide Programs for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said.

EPA said through the strategies, the agency will use the most updated information and processes to determine whether an herbicide will impact a species listed as threatened or endangered and will identify protections to address any impacts.

The agency will reportedly consider where a species lives, what it needs to survive, where the pesticide will end up in the environment and what kind of impacts the pesticide might have if it reaches the species.

The final strategy will also reportedly expedite how EPA complies with the Endangered Species Act through future consultations with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by identifying mitigations to address the potential impacts of each herbicide on listed species even before the agency completes the consultation process.

The agency said it is working on a website to help pesticide applicators navigate the changes.

“I encourage farmers and ranchers around the country to pay attention and be mindful of these changes that are coming and to really work closely with your state Farm Bureaus to ensure your voice is being heard and that the impact of these changes can be effectively communicated to EPA,” Boatright said. “Now that we’ve seen the herbicide strategy, we’re going to see potentially new changes on every active ingredient moving forward with a public comment period for potentially each one. That will require a much more vigilant advocacy effort in this space by our state Farm Bureaus.”