After Comments from NAAA, EPA Develops Process to Limit Areas Requiring Endangered Species

EPA recently published a process they will use to limit the size and scope of pesticide use limitation areas (PULA) to only those areas where an endangered species likely currently lives. This new process is in response to comments from NAAA and other ag organizations on the importance of minimizing the size of PULAs to only those areas where endangered species are located. NAAA included concerns about the potential size of PULAs on comments to EPA’s vulnerable species pilot project, herbicide strategy, and insecticide strategy.  

When EPA first began their recent Endangered Species Act (ESA) activities, for those species where they did not have accurate and current data on the exact location of endangered species (and critical habitat), they used the species range map from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) as the basis for the PULA. This has the potential to include large tracts of land that do not currently have the species in question located on them. The use of such range maps would result in additional mitigations being required to protect endangered species in areas where no endangered species actually existed. 

The new process developed by EPA will use a FWS species range map to develop a core map. The core map is based on the range of the species but will be refined to eliminate areas where the endangered species is no longer located. The resulting core map that will be used to create PULAs for the species will only include areas where the species likely currently lives. EPA plans to create core maps for all endangered species that require protections from pesticide exposure. For more information, visit EPA’s core maps webpage.