Environmental Protection Agency Memorandum of Understanding

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and USDA signed a memorandum of understanding  in February 2024 to better align EPA’s strategies for protecting endangered species from pesticides with NRCS practices. The EPA must meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in its pesticide regulatory decisions, and USDA supports EPA’s efforts by helping to identify activities that comply with legal pesticide regulatory standards. 

NRCS and EPA have developed a document that shows how NRCS conservation practices compare with EPA mitigation measures, NRCS will continue to provide voluntary conservation planning and practice implementation activities, assessing existing conservation plans and practices, and updating conservation plans, as needed, to recommend additional conservation practices. We aim to provide our producers assurance and simplified options for adhering to EPA pesticide application requirements.