Pesticide labels and endangered species
On the heels of a 2023 commitment from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs to put the Endangered Species Act (ESA) at the forefront of future pesticide registrations and renewals, the New York State Integrated Pest Management's Pesticide Safety Education Program partnered with Bill Chism, chair of the Weed Science Society of America’s Endangered Species Act Committee, for a webinar exploring how the EPA’s decision could impact pesticide applicators and manufacturers.
Nearly 200 people attended the webinar, “Endangered Species Act and Pesticides: An Example,” which highlighted the potential impact of the EPA’s commitment, looked at herbicide strategy, provided an overview of the ESA and touched on what enforcement might look like. Another 1100 have viewed recording NYSIPM’s YouTube channel.
Enacted in 1973, the ESA requires all federal agencies to consider the impact to threatened and endangered species and their critical habitat when making decisions. As a result of the ESA, 291 species have been saved from extinction. Prior to the EPA’s compliance commitment, the Agency faced numerous lawsuits for its failure to consider the Act when issuing pesticide registrations.
Chism leveraged nearly two decades of work with the EPA, where he conducted assessments on the benefits of pesticides to farmers as part of the registration review process, to ensure that the webinar and its content were accurate and accessible to New Yorkers and growers and applicators from throughout the country.
