Rangeland Pesticide Spraying

November 15, 2024 — Advocates for the West filed our remedy brief in this case, seeking a deadline for APHIS to complete a new programmatic environmental analysis, as well as a requirement to provide notice to the public of when and where APHIS is planning pesticide spraying each season until that analysis is done, and vacatur of the site-specific analyses for Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

August 1, 2024 — Advocates for the West won a significant victory against APHIS over its program allowing pesticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states to kill native grasshoppers and crickets. U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez found that APHIS violated the law by focusing only on reactively spraying pesticides to suppress grasshoppers and Mormon crickets, and that the agency “ignores any pest management techniques other than the application of pesticides.”

The Court found APHIS failed to consider preventative pest management strategies; the baseline conditions of butterflies, moths and native bees in spray areas; and the cumulative effects of its program when combined with other pesticide spraying in these areas. The ruling means APHIS will have to consider these effects and reconsider its “spray-first” approach to grasshopper control.

March 22, 2024 — Advocates for the West presented oral argument on summary judgment.

December 21, 2023 — Advocates for the West filed our summary judgment reply brief.

October 3, 2023 — Advocates for the West filed our motion for summary judgment and accompanying memorandum over APHIS’s rangeland pesticides program, which threatens serious harm to sensitive pollinator species, sage-grouse, and other fragile rangeland resources.

September 2, 2022 — Advocates for the West filed an amended complaint which includes Endangered Species Act and Plant Protection Act claims.

May 31, 2022 — Advocates for the West filed a lawsuit challenging the federal U.S. Department of Agriculture’s highly secretive Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) over its program allowing insecticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states. The lawsuit focuses on the harm from the insecticide spray program in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Idaho — states that have experienced heavy spraying under the program.

In 2021, APHIS released bids for contracts to aerially spray areas measuring more than 2.6 million acres just in Montana, with one spray block measuring nearly a million acres. In recent years, pesticide spraying has occurred within national wildlife refuges, popular public recreation areas, endangered species habitats, and adjacent to wilderness areas.

More than 230 species protected by the Endangered Species Act may inhabit the areas where spraying is authorized under the APHIS program, including yellow-billed cuckoos, black-footed ferrets, bull trout, Ute ladies’-tresses orchids, Oregon spotted frogs, and Spalding’s catchflies.

May 24, 2022 — Advocates for the West filed a notice of intent to sue APHIS for failing to properly consider harms to endangered species caused by insecticide spraying across millions of acres of western grasslands.

Grassland ecosystems are home to many endangered and threatened species, including flowering plants, mollusks, and many different mammals. Several once-common species on rangelands—including greater sage-grouse, monarch butterflies, and western bumblebees—are in steep decline and are the focus of conservation efforts, including possible listing under the Endangered Species Act. Many protected species depend directly on insects for their food or for pollination.