The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final version of its Herbicide Strategy, which is intended to protect more than 900 federally endangered and threatened species from the potential impacts of herbicide.
According to the EPA, the strategy will be used to identify measures to reduce the amount of herbicides exposure to these species when herbicides are registered and reevaluated, while still maintaining a variety of herbicide options for users.
“Finalizing our first major strategy for endangered species is a historic step in EPA meeting its Endangered Species Act obligations,” said Jake Li, deputy assistant administrator for pesticide programs for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “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.”
The final strategy includes more options for mitigation measures compared to the draft released in July 2023, including:
- Cover crops
- Conservation tillage
- Windbreaks
- Adjuvants
- Berms
Growers who already use those measures will not need any other runoff measures.
To determine whether a herbicide will impact a listed species and identify protections to address any impacts, the strategy considers factors such as:
- Where a species lives
- What it needs to survive (for example for food or pollinators)
- Where the pesticide will end up in the environment
- What kind of impacts the pesticide might have if it reaches the species
EPA says this will allow them to focus restrictions only in situations where they are needed.
The final strategy itself does not impose any requirements or restrictions on pesticide use and will be used to inform mitigations for new active ingredient registrations and registration review of conventional herbicides.
To help applicators consider their mitigation options, EPA is developing a mitigation menu website that the agency will release this fall, as well as a calculator applicators can use to help determine what further mitigation measures, if any, they may need in addition to what they already have in place.
Industry Reception
ARA senior vice president of public policy & counsel Richard Gupton released a statement in response to the news from EPA.
“ARA plans to review the EPA’s final Herbicide Strategy issued today to gain a better understanding of the full impact it will have on America’s agricultural industry. We appreciate the EPA’s efforts to make continuous improvements to earlier drafts that would have been unworkable for agricultural retailers, pesticide applicators and farmers,” he says. “ARA members support efforts to protect endangered species, an improved registration system that ensures the availability of essential pesticide products, and mitigation measures that are easy to understand, economical, and achievable. The real test will be when new 2025 pesticide label registrations are implemented by EPA.”
In October 2023, ARA filed comments with the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs opposing its Draft Herbicide Strategy Framework.
Josh Gackle, president of the American Soybean Association (ASA), commented as well - sharing his concern for the cost to adhere to the strategy.
“While there are clear improvements to the final Herbicide Strategy over what was first proposed, we are disappointed EPA chose to leave so many opportunities on the table to make this strategy workable for U.S. agriculture. We remain concerned with the complexity of this framework and whether growers and applicators will be able to clearly understand how to implement it. Likewise, we continue to have concerns as to the type and affordability of runoff mitigations EPA has provided, the potential distance of spray drift buffers, the number of mitigations farmers will need to adopt, and whether these requirements are supported by the best available science, as the law requires. As finalized, the Herbicide Strategy is likely to cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars to implement and could result in significant new hurdles to farmers accessing and using herbicides in the future.”
Earlier this summer, ASA and over 300 other groups shared their concerns with EPA’s process for determining how a species is impacting by herbicides.
“While we appreciate the Herbicide Strategy restrictions will not take effect immediately and that EPA plans to implement them in individual pesticide registration decisions moving forward, ASA will carefully observe how closely EPA adheres to its strategy in those proposed decisions,” Gackle says. “While we support EPA becoming compliant with the Endangered Species Act, it is essential that the agency’s approach meets its legal obligations and is workable for agriculture. The final Herbicide Strategy does not satisfy these needs. We look forward to continuing to work with EPA to do better in the next phase of implementation.”
Terry Kippley, president of The Council of Producers and Distributors of Agrotechnology (CPDA), adds, “While we continue to review EPA’s final Herbicide Strategy and accompanying mitigation documents, CPDA would like to commend EPA for recognizing the importance of Drift Reduction Adjuvants (DRAs) in reducing requirements placed on growers. Ensuring access to important crop protection tools with the use of DRAs help maintain an appropriate balance between profitability, the environment and impacted species. By linking boom height, nozzle type and DRA’s, growers have a powerful tool to reduce burdensome buffer demands associated with the Strategy.”
The final strategy and supporting materials can be found here.
