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Implementing EPA’s Workplan to Protect Endangered and Threatened Species from Pesticides

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Pilot Projects Overview

In 2021, prompted by the escalating challenges of fulfilling its Endangered Species Act (ESA) obligations for pesticide decisions, EPA began developing a comprehensive, long-term approach to meeting those obligations. Informed by EPA’s past efforts and by its recent discussions with stakeholders, in 2021 EPA began holding a series of internal and external meetings on how the Agency could address its ESA obligations. These included quarterly ESA-FIFRA meetings with stakeholders and a widely attended January 2022 public listening session on improving the ESA-FIFRA process.

In April 2022, EPA released its workplan to address the complexity of meeting its ESA obligations for actions taken under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). This comprehensive workplan establishes four overall strategies and dozens of actions that EPA will adopt, in collaboration with other federal agencies, to improve protection for federally threatened and endangered (listed) species and meet our ESA obligations. In November 2022, EPA released an ESA Workplan Update (pdf) (1.11 MB)  that details how EPA will pursue protections for nontarget species, including listed species, earlier in the process for pesticide registration review and other FIFRA actions.

The ESA Workplan identifies several pilot projects to provide earlier protections for listed species. These pilots include the “Federal Mitigation Pilot Project,” which is a collaboration across federal agencies, and the “EPA Vulnerable Species Pilot Project,” to identify early mitigation for listed species that EPA has determined are particularly vulnerable to pesticide effects. This webpage provides more information on both pilot projects, which focus on protections for specific species to help EPA meet its ESA obligations. See EPA’s workplan for information on other pilot projects that focus on protections for specific pesticides.

Federal Mitigation Pilot Project

This project is a collaboration between EPA, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Together, the agencies are developing approaches for identifying and implementing mitigation to minimize the effects of pesticides on listed species. This project will help federal agencies and stakeholders gain a common understanding of how to reduce exposures to listed species from pesticides by implementing feasible mitigations earlier in the FIFRA registration and registration review processes.

As of November 2022, FWS, NMFS, EPA and USDA have made progress discussing practical, flexible, feasible, and effective measures that are expected to reduce pesticide exposure to the pilot species. EPA has also applied the lessons learned through this collaboration in its ongoing ESA efforts.

Pilot Species 

For this pilot, FWS and NMFS selected a dozen species, and EPA selected an herbicide, an insecticide, and a fungicide (glyphosate, imidacloprid, and pyraclostrobin, respectively). Each of these pesticides may be used in areas where the pilot species identified by FWS and NMFS are present. FWS and NMFS selected this group of species because it represents a variety of species (e.g., fish, mussels, butterflies) that may live in different habitats and be exposed to pesticides in different ways. Further, several of the species may be particularly vulnerable to pesticides. Most of the listed species in this pilot are FWS species because the agency has jurisdiction over most listed species.

The selected pilot species under FWS jurisdiction are: 

The selected pilot species under NMFS jurisdiction are:

Mitigation Measures

For each pilot species, EPA, FWS, NMFS, and USDA are developing an initial list of suitable mitigation measures to reduce the likelihood of future jeopardy to listed species or adverse modification of their critical habitat. These measures are also intended to minimize harmful effects (“take”) from glyphosate, imidacloprid, and pyraclostrobin. The initial list of mitigations will be based on existing mitigation measures that FWS and NMFS have developed, conservation actions in recovery plans, typical best practices for pesticides, and other conservation actions in listed species documents (e.g., 5-year status review, species status assessment). This list of mitigations will reflect input from conservation and agriculture experts, such as NMFS and FWS biologists, grower groups, professional crop consultants, pesticide registrants, and USDA scientists.

Based on this input, the four agencies will develop a list of suitable mitigation measures aimed at reducing the effects of the three pilot pesticides on the 12 species. When determining which mitigations to include, the agencies plan to consider:

  • Feasible measures to avoid and minimize pesticide exposure to species with consideration of the impact on pesticide users and their existing pest control practices.
  • Whether compensatory mitigation measures (offsets) are an option to protect or rehabilitate species populations and their habitat and, if so, which offset measures are most effective. 
  • Areas to prioritize mitigations. 
  • How long the effectiveness of different mitigations will last. 
  • Any monitoring to assess the effectiveness of the mitigation.

EPA had planned to begin public outreach on identified mitigations with states, pesticide users, pesticide registrants, conservation organizations, and other stakeholders in fall 2022. However, there are several opportunities for public comment related to how EPA is implementing the workplan planned through calendar year 2022, including registration review pilots on methomyl, carbaryl, and rodenticides. These pilots are described in EPA’s ESA Workplan and are intended to help stakeholders better understand EPA’s ESA analyses and see how EPA identifies and proposes mitigations for a small number of species. EPA’s ESA Workplan Update also describes several opportunities for public comment. After EPA receives comments on these various actions, the agencies will determine the next steps for the federal pilot.

EPA's Vulnerable Species Action Plan 

The Vulnerable Species Action Plan (VSAP) is intended to provide a framework for EPA to adopt early, meaningful protections to address potential impacts for federally threatened and endangered (listed) species that EPA identifies as particularly “vulnerable” to pesticides.

Similar to the final Herbicide Strategy and the draft Insecticide Strategy, the plan describes the framework that EPA will use for vulnerable species when considering Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) actions for conventional pesticides (such as new chemical registrations and registration review). EPA plans to incorporate mitigations from the VSAP into applicable pesticide actions, even if effects determinations EPA has not yet determined effects under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). EPA will address species listed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) through a separate process.

The VSAP was published in September 2024, following the Vulnerable Species Pilot draft white paper (dated June 2023) and incorporation of public comments. The VSAP defines a vulnerable species as a listed species that is particularly vulnerable to pesticides due to a combination of factors including a declining population trend, small number of individuals or small number of populations (e.g., groups of individuals or sub-populations), limited distribution (e.g., endemic, constrained and/or isolated populations), and occurrence in areas that may be exposed to pesticides.

To date, EPA has identified 27 species (Table 1) listed by the FWS in the lower 48 states as “vulnerable species” and within the scope of the VSAP. The species include various types of plants and animals. Over time, EPA expects to add species in the VSAP during formal consultations or coordination with FWS.

Species Taxon
Attwater's prairie chicken Bird
Buena Vista Lake Ornate Shrew Mammal
Ozark Cavefish Fish
Wyoming toad Amphibian
Avon Park harebells* Plant
Florida ziziphus* Plant
Garrett's mint* Plant
Scrub blazingstar* Plant
Scrub mint* Plant
Short leaved rosemary* Plant
Wireweed* Plant
Highlands scrub hypericum* Plant
Lewton's polygala* Plant
Sandlace* Plant
Snakeroot* Plant
Carter's mustard* Plant
Leedy's roseroot Plant
Mead's milkweed Plant
Palmate-bracted bird's beak Plant
Spring creek bladderpod Plant
Whorled Sunflower Plant
White Bluffs Bladderpod Plant
Poweshiek skipperling Terrestrial Invertebrate
Rusty patched bumble bee Terrestrial Invertebrate
Scaleshell mussel Aquatic Invertebrate
Winged Mapleleaf Aquatic Invertebrate
Madison cave isopod Aquatic Invertebrate

*Located on the Lake Wales Ridge in Florida

The VSAP applies a three-step framework, which builds off the herbicide and insecticide strategies and is intended to provide similar mitigations for the vulnerable species for pesticides with similar characteristics (e.g., exposure, toxicity, application method). The VSAP identifies the potential for impacts (Step 1), the type and level of mitigation (Step 2), and where mitigation applies (Step 3). Any needed mitigations will only apply in geographically specific areas (referred to as Pesticide Use Limitation Areas or PULAs). EPA is refining the species maps that it will use for PULAs and will not implement the VSAP in registration review until those maps are refined, which will likely be later in 2024.

The VSAP also explains that when EPA has developed a different strategy that applies to a pesticide, it will apply that strategy before applying the VSAP. The VSAP would thus supplement that strategy to the extent that the strategy does not cover pesticide uses and exposure routes to a vulnerable species. The VSAP includes mitigations for common exposure routes, including spray drift and runoff, but also addresses other routes of pesticide exposure to the vulnerable species. Examples include on-field exposure to a vulnerable species and pesticide volatilization (the movement of pesticide vapors through the air).

The Vulnerable Species Action Plan includes the following documents:

Action Plan to Reduce Exposure of Vulnerable Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Species from the Use of Conventional Pesticides, dated September 2024

Ecological Mitigation Support Document to Support Endangered Species Strategies, Version 1.0, dated July 2024

The Vulnerable Species Action Plan and accompanying support documents are available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0327.

Background

In June 2023, EPA released the Vulnerable Species Pilot Project draft white paper for a 45-day public comment period. EPA received more than 10,000 comments from a diverse set of groups. Approximately 200 of these were unique comments, with the remainder being a mail-in campaign in support of the VSP. EPA evaluated the public comments and revised the vulnerable species framework based on the public comments.

On November 2023, EPA released an update on the VSP to help the public better understand the status of this initiative and summarize EPA’s thinking on revisions to the VSP framework at that time:

  • Narrow the areas within the endangered species range map to only include locations that are important to conserving a species;
  • Clarify the scope of the VSP for non-agricultural uses;
  • Clarify potential exemptions to the proposed mitigation and whether additional exemptions are needed;
  • Revise some of the proposed mitigation and include additional mitigation options specific to non-agricultural uses and specialty crops;
  • Revisit how EPA selected the pilot vulnerable species; and
  • Develop a consistent approach to reduce pesticide exposure to listed species from spray drift and run-off.

EPA published a group of StoryMaps to raise public awareness about protecting vulnerable species from pesticides in 2023. EPA expects to release updated StoryMaps in early 2025.

Additional details regarding the Vulnerable Species Action Plan, pilot project, and mitigation proposals are available in the public docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0327 at regulations.gov. VSP Update November 2023 (pdf) (301.26 KB)

In addition, EPA held a public webinar hosted by USDA in July 2023 that described the vulnerable species pilot and answered questions from participants. The webinar recording is now available here. The webinar slides can be found here Vulnerable Species Pilot Project (pdf) (3.44 MB) .

EPA’s Herbicide Strategy

The Herbicide Strategy is designed to provide early mitigations that minimize impacts to over 900 federal endangered and threatened (listed) species and designated critical habitat for conventional herbicides (chemicals used to control weeds) used in agriculture, before completing effects determinations and, where necessary, consultation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). EPA will use the strategy to identify measures to reduce the amount of herbicides exposure to these species when it registers new herbicides and when it re-evaluates registered herbicides under a process called registration review. The strategy also focuses mitigation only in situations where species need protection by considering the location, biology, and habitat of those species. EPA focused this strategy on conventional herbicides used in agriculture in the lower 48 states because of the large percentage of herbicides applied there. In 2022, approximately 264 million acres of cropland were treated with herbicides, according to the Census of Agriculture from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The number of cropland acres treated with herbicides has remained fairly consistent since the early 2010s. EPA is also focusing this strategy on species listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) because herbicides generally impact those species. For species listed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, EPA is addressing pesticide impacts through a separate initiative with that agency.

The mitigations in the Herbicide Strategy address the most common ways that conventional agricultural herbicides may impact listed species. EPA expects the mitigations in the Herbicide Strategy will reduce the likelihood of future “jeopardy” or “adverse modification” (J/AM) findings and minimize the potential for “take” from the ongoing use of these herbicides. EPA also expects that the Herbicide Strategy will ultimately increase the efficiency of future ESA pesticide consultations with FWS regarding herbicides.

In August 2024, EPA released its final Herbicide Strategy. The strategy incorporates a wide range of stakeholder input, particularly to offer pesticide users many options to reduce pesticide impacts to listed species.

The final Herbicide Strategy includes the following documents:

The final Herbicide Strategy includes more options for mitigation measures compared to the draft, while still protecting listed species. The strategy also reduces the level of mitigation needed for applicators who have already implemented measures to reduce pesticide movement from treated fields into habitats through pesticide spray drift and runoff from a field. The measures include cover crops, conservation tillage, windbreaks, and adjuvants. Further, some measures, such as berms, are enough to fully address runoff concerns. Growers who already use those measures will not need any other runoff measures. EPA identified these options for growers through its collaborations with the USDA under its February 2024 interagency MOU and through over two dozen meetings and workshops with agricultural groups in 2024 alone.

The final strategy also recognizes that applicators who work with a runoff/erosion specialist or participate in a conservation program are more likely to effectively implement mitigation measures. These conservation programs include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service practices and state or private stewardship measures that are effective at reducing pesticide runoff. The strategy reduces the level of mitigation needed for applicators who employ a specialist or participate in a program. Geographic characteristics may also reduce the level of mitigation needed, such as farming in an area with flat lands, or with minimal rain such as US counties that are in the dryest climates. As a result, in many of those counties, a grower may need to undertake few or no additional runoff mitigations for herbicides that are not very toxic to listed species.

The final strategy will also expedite how EPA complies with ESA obligations through future consultations with FWS by identifying mitigations to address the potential impacts of each herbicide on listed species even before the Agency completes the consultation process—which in many cases, can take five years or more. Further, EPA and FWS expect to formalize their understanding of how this strategy can inform and streamline future ESA consultations for herbicides.

The final strategy itself does not impose any requirements or restrictions on pesticide use. Rather, EPA will use the strategy to inform mitigations for new active ingredient registrations and registration review of conventional herbicides. EPA understands that the spray drift and runoff mitigation from the strategy can be complicated for some pesticide users to adopt for the first time. EPA has developed a document that details multiple real-world examples of how a pesticide applicator could adopt the mitigation from this strategy when those measures appear on pesticide labels. To help applicators to consider their options, EPA is developing a mitigation menu website that the Agency will release in fall 2024 and plans to periodically update with additional mitigation options, allowing applicators to use the most up-to-date mitigations without requiring pesticide product labels to be amended each time new measures become available. EPA is also developing a calculator that applicators can use to help determine what further mitigation measures, if any, they may need to take in light of mitigations they may already have in place. EPA will also continue to develop educational and outreach materials to inform the public and help applicators understand mitigation needs and where descriptions of mitigations are located.

The Final Herbicide Strategy and accompanying support documents are available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0365.

Background

In July 2023, EPA released a draft of this strategy for public comment. EPA received extensive comments, with many reiterating the importance of protecting listed species from herbicides but also minimizing impacts on farmers and other pesticide users. In response to comments, EPA made many improvements to the draft, with the primary changes falling into three categories:

  • Making the strategy easier to understand;
  • Increasing flexibility for pesticide users/growers to implement mitigation measures in the strategy; and
  • Reducing the amount of additional mitigation that may be needed when growers have either already adopted practices to reduce pesticide runoff or are applying herbicides where runoff potential is lower due to geography.

In April of 2024, EPA released an update to its draft strategy, describing planned improvements to the final strategy aiming to increase grower flexibility and ease of implementation and incorporating real-world growing practices while still protecting federally listed species. In May of 2024, USDA and EPA co-organized and hosted an ESA-FIFRA Mitigation Workshop for stakeholders with an interest in specialty crops including state regulators, commodity groups, federal partners, EPA regional staff, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and registrants to discuss:

  1. The list of runoff/erosion and spray drift mitigations being considered in the updated Herbicide Strategy such as pesticide runoff vulnerability and areas of low annual precipitation; 
  2. Additional mitigation measures EPA is evaluating which require more analysis or supplemental data; and
  3. Updates on mitigation practices that were evaluated and not considered relevant to cultivated agriculture.

In the workshop, stakeholders presented on training and education efforts, mitigation, and cropping techniques, as well as voluntary and required conservation programs within their regions. After the presentations, there was a Q&A panel session for both the EPA and the stakeholder presentations. EPA considered the stakeholder input provided at the workshop in completing the draft Insecticide Strategy, the Mitigation Support Document and the final Herbicide Strategy.

The slides presented by EPA and participants of the ESA-FIFRA Mitigation Workshop are available here.

Hawaii Strategy

As described in the EPA’s ESA Workplan update, EPA is exploring mitigation measures to address the effects of pesticides on federally threatened and endangered (listed) species on a geographic basis and further EPA’s ESA obligations. The Hawaii Strategy is one way the Agency expects to create significant efficiencies. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has jurisdiction over approximately 1,600 species and hundreds of critical habitats. Of these species, approximately 40% are in Hawaii. As a result, when EPA conducts ESA analyses for pesticides with use or proposed use in Hawaii, the workload associated with these uses is significant. At the same time, there are important pesticide needs in Hawaii, including to remove invasive species, which benefits listed species. 

EPA and FWS can greatly increase the efficiency of future ESA pesticide section 7 consultations by evaluating Hawaiian species and pesticide actions using a broad approach that protects listed species and critical habitats across all of Hawaii rather than pesticide-by-pesticide or species-by-species. Completing this upfront work would also allow EPA to give pesticide users more certainty about the ability to continue using pesticides in Hawaii and to begin protecting species quicker rather than waiting for the completion of individual pesticide consultations.

To facilitate the development of these mitigations and solicitate stakeholder feedback, EPA, with FWS, is convening an invitation-only workshop in Hawaii in March 2024 (see the Agenda for Hawaii Strategy and Workshop (pdf) (373.37 KB) ) as part of an initiative to streamline the pesticide consultation process for listed species in Hawaii.

Informed by initial stakeholder outreach prior to the workshop, EPA, in coordination with FWS, would identify draft mitigations to protect listed species and critical habitats and a decision framework to determine the level of mitigation needed to reduce potential impacts from pesticide uses in Hawaii. When finalized, EPA would use this strategy and framework to inform the ESA mitigation requirements in pesticide registration and re-registration decisions.

The workshop allows Hawaii state agencies and stakeholders to help EPA protect Hawaiian listed species from pesticides in ways that are practical for pesticide users. A major part of the workshop is for EPA and FWS to verify the accuracy of the information gathered to date on pesticide uses in Hawaii, their application methods, current mitigation, best management practices, and conservation approaches employed in Hawaii to minimize pesticide exposure to listed species. The workshop will also offer participants the opportunity to provide individual feedback to the agencies if they believe the draft strategy and decision framework needs to be further tailored to the unique circumstances in Hawaii and help the agencies fill knowledge gaps through in-person discussions. At the workshop, EPA and FWS will also provide information they have gathered to date on the conservation approaches and mitigation measures. 

Insecticide Strategy

Similar to the EPA’s Herbicide Strategy, the Insecticide Strategy is designed to identify early mitigations before the Agency completes effects determinations to reduce potential impacts to federally endangered and threatened (listed) species and their designated critical habitat from the agricultural use of conventional insecticides while helping to ensure the continued availability of these important pesticide tools. As part of this strategy, EPA is developing a framework to assess potential impacts of specific insecticides to listed aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates as well as impacts to those listed species that rely on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates as prey or for pollination services and identify any needed mitigations. The Insecticide Strategy itself would not impose any requirements on pesticide users and it is not a rulemaking action. The Insecticide Strategy represents a framework that EPA expects would inform the existing mechanisms EPA uses to register and re-register pesticides. In addition, EPA expects that the Strategy would increase the efficiency of future ESA consultations on insecticides with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which has authority over most listed species that could benefit from the Strategy.

The Draft Insecticide Strategy

This draft identifies protections that EPA will consider when it registers a new insecticide or reevaluates an existing one. The draft Insecticide Strategy includes:

  • an introduction including the scope of the strategy;
  • the draft framework that EPA expects to use to identify potential population-level impacts, identify mitigation measures to address these impacts, and determine the geographic extent of the mitigation measures;
  • case studies to illustrate how the framework could be applied to representative insecticides; and
  • how EPA expects to implement the strategy in its registration and registration review actions.

This draft strategy incorporates lessons learned from EPA’s draft herbicide strategy, which the agency released last year to minimize the impacts of agricultural herbicides on hundreds of listed species. For example, based on feedback received on the draft herbicide strategy, EPA designed the mitigations in the draft insecticide strategy to maximize the number of options for farmers and other pesticide users when implementing the mitigation. These mitigation options also consider farmers who are already implementing measures to reduce pesticide runoff and those who are located in areas less prone to pesticide runoff, such as flat lands and regions with less rain to carry pesticides off fields. These measures also include the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service practices and state or private stewardship measures that are effective at reducing pesticide runoff.

Similar to the herbicide strategy, the draft insecticide strategy uses the most updated information and processes to determine whether an insecticide will impact over 900 listed species and identify protections to address any impacts. To determine impacts, the draft strategy considers where a species lives, what it needs to reproduce (e.g., for food or pollinators), where the pesticide will end up in the environment, and what kind of impacts the pesticide might have if it reaches the species. These refinements greatly reduce the need for pesticide restrictions in situations that do not benefit species.

The draft Insecticide Strategy and accompanying support documents are available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2024-0299 for public comment for 60 days.

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Last updated on September 30, 2024