The EPA Herbicide Strategy is designed to reduce the potential environmental impact from the use of crop protection products for over 900 listed and endangered species. “We have to get ahead of this problem because there’s so much vulnerability in the courts that we don’t want to be in a situation where a farmer loses a tool in the middle of the growing season because a court struck it down,” said Rod Snyder, director of agriculture and rural affairs, EPA. “We need to get in control of our own destiny and make sure that we’re complying with the law and meeting these standards,” Snyder said EPA has not complied with the Endangered Species Act when registering pesticides for decades. The agency has been on the losing side of this issue in the courts. Snyder said work has been done to help farmers meet the standards.”In some cases, the maps that we have from the Fish and Wildlife Service are probably overly broad. We can refine those to actually look at where the habitat really exists so that we’re not applying these regulations here they aren’t really needed.”
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