Helping Farmers Understand EPA Herbicide Strategy

University of Illinois Weed Science extension specialist Aaron Hager has been closely monitoring the upcoming Environmental Protection Agency Herbicide Strategy to assess its implications for pesticide levels and compliance with the Endangered Species Act. Hager explains how these changes will eventually impact all pesticides.

“The agency has developed what they call the herbicide strategy, and that would be the approach that the agency is going to take to introduce what they refer to as mitigation practices. And by mitigation practices, those types of practices that would further reduce the likelihood of pesticide or pesticide application causing any damage to an endangered species itself or the critical habitat that that endangered species relies upon.”

The initial draft of the EPA Herbicide Strategy posts significant compliance challenges for users. However, after a comment period, adjustments have been made to ease those concerns. Efforts are now focused on preparing growers for the upcoming changes, according to Hager,

“One of the things that our professional society, the wheat Science Society of America, has done is formed a ESA committee to again try to understand the strategies, how they may impact herbicide users, offer suggestions maybe for other types of mitigations that could be possible.”

University of Illinois’, Aaron Hager.