Conservationists formally urged EPA on Tuesday to boost protection from pesticides for bees and other pollinators through expanded testing and other means.
In a petition filed on their behalf by Earthjustice, members of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation asked EPA to update its procedures for assessing pesticide risks.
“We know pesticides are a key driver of monarch and other pollinator declines,” said Rosemary Malfi, the society’s director of conservation policy, “yet there are glaring gaps in the EPA’s oversight of pesticides: The vast majority of pesticides have never been tested for their impacts on butterflies or wild bees.”
The petition was filed a week after the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
