The EPA is developing an updated Endangered Species Act (ESA) Workplan that addresses how the agency can protect nearly 1,700 threatened and endangered species and their critical habitats while governing the registration, distribution, sale, and use of pesticides.

Illinois Soybean Association and ILSoyAdvisor hosted a webinar on Friday, August 4th with speaker Dr. Aaron Hager, University of Illinois Crop Sciences. Dr. Hager urged farmers, applicators, researchers, and agronomists to become more familiar with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and how the EPA proposes to meet the agency’s requirements when registering or re-registering pesticides. 

To comply with the ESA, the EPA will evaluate the potential effects of pesticides on federally threatened or endangered species and their critical habitats and then recommend mitigation strategies developed in partnership with other federal agencies. Examples of this include requirements for vegetative filter strips, field borders and grassed waterways, terracing, contour farming, cover cropping, mulching, the adoption of no tillage or reduced tillage strategies, and the safe disposal of excess seed that has been treated with pesticides. 

Once finalized, such protections will become part of the formal registration review process for various geographic regions and for various groups of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. 

Learn more about the ESA and its impact on pesticide regulation by viewing this webinar below.