The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) helps protect endangered and threatened species in a number of ways:
- Helps educate pesticide users on current pesticide label language designed to protect waterways, endangered fish and aquatic organisms, plants, insects, and animal species, and critical habitats.
- Works with cooperative extension services and others to provide endangered species information.
- Provides comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the feasibility of proposed mitigation measures during EPA’s standard processes of registration and registration review.
- Reviews and comments on EPA’s draft bulletins.
- Establishes and maintains relationships with local and regional fish and wildlife agencies, and uses information to incorporate mitigation measures on Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Section 24(c) labels, and FIFRA Section 18 instructions.
- Enforces the Pesticide Control Act, including enforcement of restrictions on pesticide labels.
- Makes referrals to wildlife agencies or other agencies in the case of an incident.
New: Endangered Species Protection Bulletins for Bromoxynil, Prometryn, S-metolachlor/metolachlor and 1,3-Dichloropropene
On January 31, 2023, EPA accepted revised labels for products containing any of the above active ingredients in order to add a reference to endangered species bulletins available in Bulletins Live! Two.
Container labels are being updated to include this information, and are beginning to enter the marketplace. If the label affixed to the main container of the product you are applying contains a reference to Bulletins Live! Two, you are required to go to the Bulletins Live! Two website, check if there is a bulletin for the area in which you intend to apply pesticides. This reference will be toward the beginning of the Directions for Use under the heading “Endangered Species Protection Requirements.”
If there is a bulletin in your area, it will specify geographically-specific application restrictions to protect endangered salmonids, which you are required to follow. Endangered species protection bulletins implement geographically-specific application restrictions, so the area in which you intend to apply pesticides may not have a bulletin. Regardless, if the label requires you to check for a bulletin, you must do so before applying the product.
Resources