APHIS monitors grasshoppers in 17 western states, and when the agency deems there’s an outbreak - or is asked to intervene by stakeholders like the US Forest Service or adjacent land owners - it can apply a pesticide to kill the insects.
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APHIS monitors grasshoppers in 17 western states, and when the agency deems there’s an outbreak - or is asked to intervene by stakeholders like the US Forest Service or adjacent land owners - it can apply a pesticide to kill the insects.
APHIS monitors grasshoppers in 17 western states, and when the agency deems there’s an outbreak - or is asked to intervene by stakeholders like the US Forest Service or adjacent land owners - it can apply a pesticide to kill the insects.
The Xerces Society and Center for Biological Diversity sued the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service today over its program allowing insecticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states.
APHIS, a highly secretive agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, oversees and funds the application of multiple pesticides on rangelands to prevent native grasshoppers and Mormon crickets from competing with livestock for forage.
Federal regulators have failed to properly assess the broad environmental impacts of the spraying, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, according to the conservation groups.