VICTORY! Court Rejects Federal Pesticide-Spraying Program on Millions of Acres of Western Rangelands
2nd of Aug 2024
Advocates for the West and our partners at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity won a significant victory against the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (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.”
“For years APHIS has carried out its grasshopper program with a shocking lack of regard for its legal obligations under the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act,” said Andrew Missel, Staff Attorney at Advocates for the West. “The Court’s decision is a stern reminder to APHIS that it is not, in fact, above the law. APHIS must now go back to the drawing board and rethink its ‘spray first, ask questions later’ approach to grasshopper management. We will be watching.”
“We are pleased that the district court agrees that APHIS must consider preventative measures—not just pesticide applications—in grasshopper management,” said Sharon Selvaggio, Pesticide Reduction Specialist at the Xerces Society. “This approach will reshape grasshopper management for the better, and contribute to the well-being of pollinators, birds, fish, and other wildlife across millions of acres of western rangeland.”
“For decades the Department of Agriculture has acted with impunity, drenching millions of acres of western ecosystems with deadly insecticides to kill the native grasshoppers and crickets that have always been keystone species here,” said Lori Ann Burd, Environmental Health Director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Bees, butterflies, sage-grouse, and countless other critters join us in celebrating this resounding victory against this ecosystem-poisoning program.”
Background
APHIS, a highly secretive agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, oversees and funds the application of multiple pesticides harmful to a wide range of species on western rangelands. The program seeks to prevent native grasshoppers and Mormon crickets from competing with livestock for forage.
APHIS’s outdated program relies on large-scale, aerial pesticide spraying. In recent years, APHIS has approved and carried out spraying within national wildlife refuges, popular public recreation areas, and endangered species habitats, and adjacent to wilderness areas. 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.
Public rangelands in western states are important, multi-use lands that provide critical habitat for bees, butterflies, and other insects that, along with native grasshoppers, support a rich diversity of birds, wildlife, and plants. Greater sage-grouse, monarch butterflies, and many other species inhabiting western lands are already in steep decline and vulnerable to harm from APHIS’s pesticide spraying. Multiple bumble bee species native to western states have disappeared or declined from areas they once occupied.
Represented by Advocates for the West, the Xerces Society and the Center for Biological Diversity sued APHIS in May 2022 over the agency’s failure to properly assess the broad environmental harm from the spraying, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
In recent years, APHIS’s lack of transparency and disregard for key cultural and environmental considerations has resulted in public outcry, prompting Congress to issue a statement in March directing APHIS to operate its program with greater transparency.
In June 2023, the Bureau of Land Management and the New Mexico State Land Office withdrew from a 25,000-acre aerial spray planned by APHIS on public lands in the Rio Chama watershed of northern New Mexico days before it was scheduled to begin. The spray area included a wilderness study area on Navajo Peak and a designated area of critical environmental concern, but Tribal, recreational, and environmental communities were not informed about the spray. In March, APHIS pulled an environmental assessment for Arizona’s program after significant omissions dealing with Tribal interests and national monuments were identified during the comment period.
APHIS has also neglected its obligations under the Endangered Species Act, only completing its consultation requirements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the pesticide program the evening before oral arguments in this case. The national consultation, the first in nearly 30 years, resulted in measures to reduce harm to federally protected species, such as pesticide spray buffers.
The lawsuit focused on the specific harms from the insecticide program in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Idaho—states that have experienced heavy spraying. Other states where the insecticide spraying is approved include Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington.
At Issue
In the ruling, 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.
In addition to striking down APHIS’s 2019 environmental analysis, the Court also found that APHIS’s state-specific environmental assessments for Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming were fatally flawed, lacking even basic details on where the sprays might occur.
