The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced its Vulnerable Species Action Plan (VSAP), finalizing its transition from its June 2023 Vulnerable Species Pilot (VSP) in order to help conserve federally threatened and endangered (listed) species from pesticides.  As part of implementing EPA’s Endangered Species Act Workplan, the VSAP is intended to provide a framework for EPA to adopt early, meaningful protections to address potential impacts for listed species that EPA identifies as particularly “vulnerable” to pesticides.  The plan describes the framework that EPA will use for vulnerable species when considering Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) actions for conventional pesticides (such as new chemical registrations and registration review).  EPA plans to incorporate mitigations from the VSAP into applicable pesticide actions, even if EPA has not yet determined effects under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). EPA will address species listed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) through a separate process.  The VSAP describes how the approach EPA plans to use to evaluate potential impacts to these listed species and any associated mitigations, and how EPA plans to expand the approach to additional listed species in the future.    In the VSAP, EPA has identified 27 species listed by FWS in the lower 48 states as “vulnerable species” and within the scope of the VSAP.  The species include the following:

 

Species	Taxon
Attwater’s prairie chicken	Bird
Buena Vista Lake Ornate Shrew	Mammal
Avon Park harebells*	Plant
Carter’s mustard*	Plant
Florida ziziphus*	Plant
Garrett’s mint*	Plant
Highlands scrub hypericum*	Plant
Lewton’s polygala*	Plant
Sandlace*	Plant
Scrub blazingstar*	Plant
Scrub mint*	Plant
Short leaved rosemary*	Plant
Snakeroot*	Plant
Wireweed*	Plant
Leedy’s roseroot	Plant
Madison cave isopod	Aquatic Invertebrate
Mead’s milkweed	Plant
Ozark Cavefish	Fish
Palmate-bracted bird’s beak	Plant
Poweshiek skipperling	Terrestrial Invertebrate
Rusty patched bumble bee	Terrestrial Invertebrate
Scaleshell mussel	Aquatic Invertebrate
Spring creek bladderpod	Plant
White Bluffs Bladderpod	Plant
Whorled Sunflower	Plant
Winged Mapleleaf	Aquatic Invertebrate
Wyoming toad	Amphibian

 

The VSAP applies a three-step framework which builds off the herbicide and insecticide strategies and is intended to provide similar mitigations for the vulnerable species for pesticides with similar characteristics (e.g., exposure, toxicity, application method). The VSAP identifies the potential for impacts (Step 1), the type and level of mitigation (Step 2), and where mitigation applies (Step 3).  Any needed mitigations will only apply in geographically specific areas (referred to as Pesticide Use Limitation Areas or PULAs).  EPA is refining the species maps that it will use for PULAs and will not implement the VSAP in registration review until those maps are refined, which will likely be later in 2024.  The VSAP includes mitigations for common exposure routes, including spray drift and runoff, but also addresses other routes of pesticide exposure to the vulnerable species. Examples include on-field exposure to a vulnerable species and pesticide volatilization (the movement of pesticide vapors through the air). This action plan, along with the Ecological Mitigation Support document, are available in the public docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0327 at regulations.gov, and on EPA’s website.