(CN) — A federal judge on Friday sided with two environmental advocacy organizations in their challenge to the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's updated program to use pesticides to combat grasshopper infestations on rangeland in the western U.S.
U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez, a Barack Obama appointee, granted summary judgment to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity, agreeing that the federal service didn't adequately consider alternatives to the widespread use of the pesticides.
The organizations accused the service, a subdivision of the Department of Agriculture, of violating the National Environmental Policy Act by not considering, in its 2019 environmental impact statement, a holistic alternative to grasshopper control, failing to establish baseline conditions and failing to take a hard look at the program’s impact on sensitive species, such as pollinators and sage grouse.
Since grasshopper and cricket infestations reduce the forage available for livestock on rangeland, the service is legally required to carry out a program to control grasshopper and Mormon cricket populations on those lands. However, Hernandez found that the service analysis of alternatives to widespread aerial spraying was insufficient.
"By specifically focusing on suppression via direct intervention—or, in this case, the use of pesticides—the [environmental impact statement] is narrower than the relevant statutes and the purpose and need statement is invalid," Hernandez said, referring to the Plant Protection Act — which tasks the service with carrying out a program to control grasshoppers and Mormon crickets to protect rangeland — and the Food Quality and Protection Act.
"There is no evidence that focusing on pesticide treatments fulfills the overall purpose of the relevant statutes," the judge said. "Nor is there evidence that [integrated pest management] techniques were just given less attention than the use of pesticides ... Instead, the EIS appears to foreclose consideration of any non-suppression methods of managing the grasshopper population."
Integrated pest management is a sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, physical and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health and environmental risks.
“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.”
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's "outdated" program relies on large-scale, aerial pesticide spraying, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. In recent years, the service has approved and carried out spraying within national wildlife refuges, popular public recreation areas and endangered species habitats, and adjacent to wilderness areas, the organization argues.
In 2021, the service 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.
The conservation groups’ lawsuit focused on the specific harms from the insecticide program in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Idaho — states that have experienced heavy spraying, the center said. 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.
Representatives of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service didn't immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours.
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