Wildlife agency ordered to finish assessing pesticide impacts on endangered species

The Fish and Wildlife Service must formally evaluate the impacts of five pesticides on endangered species, a federal judge has ordered.

FWS must complete biological opinions required under the Endangered Species Act by March 31, 2026, for atrazine and simazine, and by Sept. 30, 2028 for chlorpyrifos and diazinon. FWS says it will complete another opinion on carbaryl, also a subject of the lawsuit brought by Center for Biological Diversity, by the end of this month.

The ruling “will force the Trump Fish and Wildlife Service to take action to stop these dangerous pesticides from driving imperiled species like monarch butterflies and California red-legged frogs closer to extinction,” Jonathan Evans, environmental health legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release.

Under the ESA, EPA and federal wildlife agencies must engage in interagency consultation to assess the impacts of pesticides on federally threatened or endangered species.

“There seem to be few competing priorities that would justify letting nationwide consultations that, based on the only data available could impact most protected species and habitats, languish for around eight years,” U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker of Arizona said in his ruling.

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The judge said he was “not reordering agency priorities or requiring FWS to act any sooner than" than the agency thinks is necessary to produce sound biological opinions. "The court is simply directing FWS to abide by its own proffered timelines.”

“EPA initiated formal consultation on atrazine and simazine about three and a half years ago, carbaryl and methomyl about four years ago, and chlorpyrifos and diazinon about eight years ago,” the judge said in his order.

Methomyl was also part of the lawsuit, but FWS completed consultation on that insecticide on Dec. 31.

EPA’s own assessments found that chlorpyrifos is harming 97% of protected species, carbaryl 91% and diazinon 78%. The figures for atrazine and simazine were 56% and 55% respectively.

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