The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a public webinar at 1 p.m. CST Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, to provide information on the ecological runoff/erosion and spray drift mitigation measures that can be used to protect endangered species from pesticides. These measures are part of EPA’s online menu of mitigation measures pesticide users can choose from depending on their crop, region, agronomic practices, and the individual field to protect endangered species. The mitigation menu approach is intended to improve flexibility for pesticide users by providing options that work best for their situation, while still achieving an appropriate level of mitigation.
The purpose of the webinar is to help users better understand and use the mitigation menu webpage. The webinar will include:
- An overview of the mitigation menu, including runoff/erosion and spray drift mitigation measures, and how pesticide users and growers can evaluate their fields for these mitigation measures.
- An explanation of how to navigate the mitigation menu webpage and available resources including the new Pesticide App for Label Mitigations (PALM).
- A demonstration of the available tools to calculate runoff/erosion mitigation points and spray drift buffers.
Background
In April 2025, EPA released an update to the mitigation menu website to include measures associated with the final Insecticide Strategy and tools to help growers calculate spray drift mitigations. The website also includes descriptions of the runoff/erosion and spray drift mitigation measures. Along with the descriptions of the mitigation measures, the website includes the associated number of “points” associated with runoff-based mitigations or percent reduction of spray drift buffers associated with spray drift mitigations as well as photos, tools and available resources to help users.
Pesticide labels that require ecological mitigation measures may refer to the mitigation menu webpage so users can quickly find the most updated list and description of measures. Using a website allows EPA to include additional options for growers as new information is evaluated by EPA for potential inclusion. The mitigation menu does not impose any requirements or restrictions on pesticide use. Rather, pesticide users would access the mitigation menu website only to inform what mitigation measures could be used to achieve the level of mitigation that is required on pesticide labeling.
