EPA Finalizes Plan to Protect Vulnerable Species 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced its Vulnerable Species Action Plan (VSAP), finalizing its transition from its June 2023 Vulnerable Species Pilot (VSP) in order to help conserve federally threatened and endangered (listed) species from pesticides.  As part of implementing EPA’s Endangered Species Act Workplan, the VSAP is intended to provide a framework for EPA to adopt early, meaningful protections to address potential impacts for listed species that EPA identifies as particularly “vulnerable” to pesticides.  The plan describes the framework that EPA will use for vulnerable species when considering Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) actions for conventional pesticides (such as new chemical registrations and registration review).  EPA plans to incorporate mitigations from the VSAP into applicable pesticide actions, even if EPA has not yet determined effects under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). EPA will address species listed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) through a separate process.  The VSAP describes how the approach EPA plans to use to evaluate potential impacts to these listed species and any associated mitigations, and how EPA plans to expand the approach to additional listed species in the future.    In the VSAP, EPA has identified 27 species listed by FWS in the lower 48 states as “vulnerable species” and within the scope of the VSAP.  The species include the following:

Species

Taxon

Attwater's prairie chicken

Bird

Buena Vista Lake Ornate Shrew

Mammal

Avon Park harebells*

Plant

Carter's mustard*

Plant

Florida ziziphus*

Plant

Garrett’s mint*

Plant

Highlands scrub hypericum*

Plant

Lewton's polygala*

Plant

Sandlace*

Plant

Scrub blazingstar*

Plant

Scrub mint*

Plant

Short leaved rosemary*

Plant

Snakeroot*

Plant

Wireweed*

Plant

Leedy's roseroot

Plant

Madison cave isopod

Aquatic Invertebrate

Mead's milkweed

Plant

Ozark Cavefish

Fish

Palmate-bracted bird's beak

Plant

Poweshiek skipperling

Terrestrial Invertebrate

Rusty patched bumble bee

Terrestrial Invertebrate

Scaleshell mussel

Aquatic Invertebrate

Spring creek bladderpod

Plant

White Bluffs Bladderpod

Plant

Whorled Sunflower

Plant

Winged Mapleleaf

Aquatic Invertebrate

Wyoming toad

Amphibian

The VSAP applies a three-step framework which builds off the herbicide and insecticide strategies and is intended to provide similar mitigations for the vulnerable species for pesticides with similar characteristics (e.g., exposure, toxicity, application method). The VSAP identifies the potential for impacts (Step 1), the type and level of mitigation (Step 2), and where mitigation applies (Step 3).  Any needed mitigations will only apply in geographically specific areas (referred to as Pesticide Use Limitation Areas or PULAs).  EPA is refining the species maps that it will use for PULAs and will not implement the VSAP in registration review until those maps are refined, which will likely be later in 2024.  The VSAP includes mitigations for common exposure routes, including spray drift and runoff, but also addresses other routes of pesticide exposure to the vulnerable species. Examples include on-field exposure to a vulnerable species and pesticide volatilization (the movement of pesticide vapors through the air). This action plan, along with the Ecological Mitigation Support document, are available in the public docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0327 at regulations.gov, and on EPA’s website.

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Governor Signs Ag Overtime Bill

Ignoring the pleas of real farmworkers and the agricultural industry, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed AB 1066, the ag overtime legislation. This means that California will have the most stringent trigger of any state in the country for overtime for farmworkers, with 45 states having no overtime protection at all. The Governor signed this bill, supposedly to bring “equality to all workers”, yet taxi cab drivers, commercial fishermen, car salesmen, student nurses, computer programmers, and carnival workers all work without any overtime provisions whatsoever. The Governor signed this ag overtime bill in the same year that minimum wage legislation was also passed that will take California to the highest minimum wage as well as legislation forcing California to adopt additional greenhouse gas regulations for businesses in California. California is the only state in the country subject to such regulations. Today’s signing occurred despite numerous requests by the agricultural industry to meet with the Governor to discuss our concerns. The message is clear. California simply doesn’t care. These provisions will be phased in over the next few years ending with the overtime provisions to be triggered at 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.

In the Beginning As folks transitioned out of cotton and into tree nuts, the industry recognized the need to have active and effective representation at the local, state and national levels. Having enjoyed such effective representation over the years from the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations, these folks yearned for the same representation in the tree nut processing industry. Issues such as air quality, food safety, labor, taxes, employee safety, and environmental concerns are at the forefront, and there is a significant need for an aggressive and dynamic Association to lead the industry into the next decade and beyond. In recognition of this, the Western Agricultural Processors Association was created in 2009. The Western Agricultural Processors Association (WAPA) shares staff and office space with the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations taking advantage of a unique and opportunistic situation. WAPA is a voluntary dues organization with four shared staff and one dedicated staff person. Regulatory, legislative and legal issues fall under the purview of this new organization for the tree nut processing industry, which includes almonds, pecans, pistachios and walnuts. From air quality permits to conditional use permits, from regulatory hearings on greenhouse gases to federal legislation on food safety, and from OSHA violations to assisting members on hazardous materials business plans, no issue is too small or too large for WAPA. WAPA has assembled one of the best and most capable staffs in the industry, and the results are already starting to show Membership The Western Agricultural Processors Association represents facilities involved in the processing of almonds, pecans, pistachios and walnuts.Membership in the Association is classified as Regular memberships are limited to almond hullers or processors, pecan and pistachio processors, and walnut dehydrators and processors. Associate memberships are limited to any individual or business entity which is not engaged in agricultural processing, but which provides products or services directly related to the agricultural processing industry. WAPA Associate members include, but are not limited to, commodity brokers, accounting firms, and insurance brokers. Organization The Western Agricultural Processors Association is governed by a Board of Directors, elected by its membership.The Board consists of up to 15 members from throughout the state, and throughout the industry.The Board meets on a quarterly basis and conducts an Annual Meeting in the spring of each year.WAPA, in conjunction with the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations, conducts a special training school for its members focused on safety.In combination with the school, the Association holds a Labor Management Seminar for all of the managers. Consulting Services In researching and considering the concept of forming a new organization, the Boards of Directors for the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations instructed staff to perform some of the work on a consulting basis first. The point was to determine the workload from consulting and to determine if there was sufficient interest. In November of 2007, the Association began conducting services under consulting contracts for such services as air quality permits and safety plans.The effort has been so successful that demand has progressed outside the tree nut industry into other agricultural processing facilities, including vegetable dehydration facilities, tomato processing facilities, and wheat mills, as well as cotton gins in Arizona.It was determined by the new Board of Directors of WAPA, that WAPA would maintain the consulting services to provide offsetting income to help with the expenses of getting the new organization up and running.Today, WAPA provides for a long list of satisfied clients in the agricultural processing industry, by providing critical services such as air quality, safety, food safety, and environmental issues (Hazardous Materials Business Plan, Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plans, etc.).