US EPA finalizes plan to protect vulnerable species

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing its Vulnerable Species Action Plan (VSAP), finalizing its transition from its June 2023 Vulnerable Species Pilot (VSP) in order to help conserve federally threatened and endangered (listed) species from pesticides. As part of implementing EPA’s Endangered Species Act Workplan, the VSAP is intended to provide a framework for EPA to adopt early, meaningful protections to address potential impacts for 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 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 describes how EPA finalized the initial list of vulnerable species to which the framework will apply, the approach EPA plans to use to evaluate potential impacts to these listed species and any associated mitigations, and how EPA plans to expand the approach to additional listed species in the future. This action fulfills one of EPA’s commitments from the 2023 settlement agreement on pesticides and ESA. Stakeholder input received during the public comment period on the Draft VSP white paper and the herbicide and insecticide strategies helped EPA refine and identify the approaches in the November 2023 VSP update and the VSAP.

In the VSAP, EPA has identified 27 species listed by 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, adding seven species that were not originally included in the VSP and removing another seven species after determining that they did not meet the definition of a vulnerable species. Over time, EPA expects to add species in the VSAP through formal consultations or coordination with FWS.

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). This action plan, along with the Ecological Mitigation Support document, are available in the public docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0327 at regulations.gov, and on EPA’s website.