This news is from the National Association of Landscape Professionals

Federal Representatives Introduce Legislation to Ban Neonics

This week, U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) introduced the Saving America’s Pollinator Act. The bill is essentially a ban on the use of Neonicotinoids. The three key components include:

  • Establishing a Pollinator Protection Board, consisting of scientists, beekeepers, farmers, and conservationists who have no direct or indirect ties to pesticide companies, in order to evaluate pesticides for their toxicity to pollinators and pollinator habitat;
  • Cracking down on insecticides that are toxic to pollinators by canceling the registration of neonicotinoid pesticides or pesticides containing imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, dinotefuran, acetamiprid, sulfoxaflor, flupyradifurone, or fipronil until they are properly reviewed by the Pollinator Protection Board; and
  • Implementing a state-of-the-art monitoring network for native bees, ensuring that experts and the public have up-to-date information on the status of native bee populations.

NALP and the landscape industry take pollinator protection extremely seriously, without pollinators it is impossible to have a thriving ecosystem to support the healthy green spaces we as an industry manage.  Interestingly, the bill proposes creating a Pollinator protection board but excludes the inclusion of industries that use EPA approved pesticides…..

Luckily, NALP just had a very successful fly-in where we spoke directly about the importance of FIFRA, IPM and the landscape industry.  At this time, it is our belief that this legislation has minimal support and certainly little viability in the closely divided Senate, but we will be closely monitoring.