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Source: EPA, 11/3/21 Today, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the White House Council on Environmental
Quality (CEQ), Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, and
Department of the Interior are reaffirming their commitment to working together
and with stakeholders to protect endangered species, provide effective pest
control tools, and regulate pesticide use in a fair, transparent, and
predictable manner.Last month, all five agencies met as part of the Interagency Working Group (IWG) created under the 2018 Farm Bill to discuss improvements to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) section 7 consultation process for pesticide registration and registration review. The group’s first meeting under the Biden-Harris Administration resulted in specific commitments to improve the pesticide consultation process for endangered species and engaging stakeholders, including by capitalizing on the strong interest among stakeholders for a workable process. “Protecting endangered species and their habitats is a priority for EPA and vitally important to restoring the balance of our country’s ecosystem,” said Ya-Wei (Jake)
Li, EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Pesticide Programs. “Reconvening the IWG with a focus on interagency collaboration, open and honest stakeholder engagement, and transparency is a critical step forward to meet our ESA obligations in a way that’s practical and protective.” “This coordinated effort to protect our endangered species and our ecosystems lays the groundwork to avoid and minimize the impacts of pesticides,” said Stephenne
Harding, CEQ Senior Director for Lands. “By working across the federal government and engaging stakeholders early in the process, we can better protect wildlife from extinction and reduce impacts on local communities, all while advancing environmental justice and improving sustainability.” “USDA welcomes the collaboration and collective communication of the ESA-FIRFA Interagency workgroup,” said Gloria Montaño Greene, Deputy Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation. “We appreciate the engagement across the federal family and the opportunity to ensure that the knowledge and impact on agricultural communities are part of the discussion.” “NOAA Fisheries supports the efforts of the ESA-FIFRA Interagency Workgroup as a valuable forum for collaborating with the Environmental Protection Agency, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Department of Agriculture,” said Janet
Coit, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Assistant
Administrator. “We look forward to working with our sister agencies, states, and stakeholders to support actions that avoid and minimize the impacts of pesticides to threatened and endangered species and their habitats.” “The Department of the Interior looks forward to these constructive meetings and working in this collaborative, transparent way with our sister agencies," said
Martha Williams, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Principal Deputy Director. Overall, the IWG is
optimistic about its ability to collaborate on improvements that the
Biden-Harris Administration can implement. Its actions focused on improving
processes that will contribute to tangible benefits for species conservation
and for stakeholders. The IWG is intent to adopt improvements expeditiously and
that endure across administrations. To guide its future work, the IWG has
identified the following initial priorities and approaches:
- Focus on improvements that deliver real world benefits
for species conservation, public health, and food production. Examples
include:
- Use pilot projects to begin implementing mitigation
measures as part of upcoming pesticide consultations and to demonstrate
process improvements.
- Adopt measures early in the pesticide consultation
process to avoid, minimize, and offset the effects of pesticide use on
ESA-listed species.
- Ensure that mitigation measures are effective and
practical to implement.
- Consider opportunities to engage with stakeholders as
an interagency body to complement the stakeholder activities of each
agency.
- Communicate the IWG’s work to stakeholders in a transparent manner.
To promote transparency,
the meeting agenda and participants list are provided below. Effective endangered
species protection cannot be accomplished solely by federal agencies. It also
requires open and continuous engagement with stakeholders on practical
solutions to harmonizing species conservation with pesticide use. To that end,
the IWG plans to hold its first stakeholder listening session in early 2022 and
will provide details on the proposed session before the end of 2021. Background – IWG Meeting Agenda and Participants List October 15, 2021.
Meeting held virtually.
- Introductions
- IWG role and perspectives of each federal agency
- Developing shared goals for IWG
- Discuss IWG stakeholder engagement and public messaging
about meeting
- Coordinate on December progress report to
Congress
- Discuss goals, date, and logistics of next IWG
meeting
CEQ
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EPA
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Interior-FWS
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Stephenne Harding
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Jake Li
Jan Matuszko
Jonah Richmond
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Martha Williams
Gina Shultz
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Commerce-NOAA Fisheries
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USDA
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Janet Coit
Walker Smith
Samuel Rauch
Kristen Gustafson
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Gloria Montano
Elyssa Arnold
Martin Lowenfish
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