The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its draft Fungicide Strategy and is inviting the public to weigh in.
The draft strategy identifies practical, science-based protections that fungicide users can adopt to safeguard more than 1,000 federally endangered and threatened species. The strategy also aims to preserve the flexibility that states, growers and applicators need.
EPA is opening this draft strategy to a 60-day public comment period and will host a public webinar to walk stakeholders through the proposal and take questions. EPA wants to hear from farmers, applicators, scientists, conservation groups, state partners, tribal partners and members of the public before any decisions are finalized.
PURPOSE OF THE REGULATION
The draft strategy:
- Uses a three-step framework to: 1) identify potential population-level impacts to listed species, 2) identify mitigation measures and 3) determine where those mitigations should apply.
- Informs EPA’s registration and registration review decisions for conventional agricultural fungicides in the lower 48 states, where approximately 41 million acres are treated annually.
- Considers where listed species live, what they need (such as food sources or pollinators), where fungicides may move in the environment and potential effects on non-target species.
- Guides mitigations that EPA will propose in future regulatory actions, with public input on each action before any decision is finalized.
- Provides flexibilities to states and growers and emphasizes ongoing collaboration with federal, state and tribal partners to deliver effective, tailored protections.
- Updates options for reducing spray drift buffer distances, including expanding spray drift adjuvants as a mitigation option to insecticides and fungicides and adding guar gum as an additional adjuvant type.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
- Public comment: The draft Fungicide Strategy and supporting documents are available in docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2026-2973 for a 60-day comment period closing on June 29, 2026. Submit comments at regulations.gov.
- Public webinar: EPA will host a public webinar on May 20 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time to provide an overview of the draft strategy, discuss how it will be implemented through registration and registration review, and answer questions. Register here.
Learn how growers can comply with EPA’s recently adopted Insecticide Strategy here.
Source: EPA
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