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Earlier this week, more 100 groups sent three letters to US Fisheries and Wildlife Service outlining the urgent actions they believe are needed to protect the country’s wildlife and their habitats from hazardous pesticides.
Conservation, environmental justice and agriculture organizations, representing tens of millions of people, detailed a number of opportunities to strengthen protection, including calling on the Service to:
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Prohibit the use of pesticides in critical habitats for endangered plants and animals.
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Eliminate the use of harmful agricultural pesticides in national reserves.
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Complete scientific reviews rejected by the Trump administration an assessment of the harm that chlorpyrifos, malathion and diazinon could cause to protected species.
“No country uses pesticides more recklessly than the United States, with some of the most serious abuses in our most important wildlife habitats,” said Laurie Ann Burd, director of environmental health at Center for Biological Diversity in statement… “To stop the extinction of animals and plants, the Fish and Wildlife Service must give endangered species a respite from toxic chemicals. We propose smart measures that will go a long way towards stemming extinction trends. ”
Unfortunately, more than one billion pounds of pesticides reportedly used in the United States every year, causing fatal and sublethal damage to endangered animals and plants that depend on fields, forests, and waterways where pesticides are frequently used or deposited.
Even in areas that the Service has formally designated as critical habitats needed to help species avoid extinction and recover, pesticides are often used. The groups urge the Service to use its mandate to ban pesticide use in designated critical habitats, at least until Environmental Protection Agency concludes a long-overdue consultation to assess whether poisons can be safely used in these areas.
More than £ 350,000 agricultural pesticides were sprayed on more than 363,000 acres of crops about America’s National Wildlife Refugees in 2018. it 34% an increase in the cultivated areas treated in 2016, based on analysis of data on pesticide use in shelters. Pesticides used in shelters include glyphosate, 2,4-D, dicamba, and paraquat, which have been shown to harm wildlife.
IN 2014, The Obama administration has moved to phase out the use of genetically engineered crops with heavy use of pesticides and neonicotinoid pesticides that kill bees in agriculture in all national reserves after a successful campaign Food Safety Center other. Unfortunately, the Trump administration reversed this decision in Oct 2018…
“We deserve a better future in which we produce food that does not harm our amazing biodiversity,” said George Kimbrell, Legal Director of the Center for Food Safety, noting that it would be better to stop using pesticides in reserves. …
IN 2017, scientists in Fish and Wildlife Service determined that continued existence 1,399 endangered plants and animals are be endangered by chlorpyrifos; 1.284 endangered species they are threatened by karbofos; as well as 175 are at risk of using diazinon.
These reviews were suspended indefinitely by Acting Interior Minister David Bernhardt, and the Biden administration did not say if and when it would release new tests for chlorpyrifos or diazinon.
BUT Fish and Wildlife Service draft analysis released last week, found karbofos to threaten the continued existence 78 endangered plants as well as animals. This represents a sharp departure from the Obama administration’s scientific conclusions.
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The Over 100 Groups message calls for action to protect endangered species and wildlife sanctuaries from toxic pesticides first appeared in World Animal News.
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