Western wildlife refuges will phase out neonicotinoid pesticides harmful to birds and pollinators

Federal wildlife refuges in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Hawaii "will phase out a class of pesticides that are chemically similar to nicotine because they pose a threat to bees and other pollinators key to crop growth," Jeff Barnard reports for The Associated Press. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Mike Corbett told Barnard the goal is to phase out pesticides by January 2016. (Statesman Journal photo by Danielle Peterson: A blue heron at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge) 

"The agency's pest management policy calls for pest-killing methods that pose the least risk to wildlife, and there is scientific evidence that neonicotinoids kill bees and other pollinators, said Kim Trust, the agency's deputy regional director of refuges," Barnard writes.

Pesticides known as neonicotinoids have been blamed for wiping out 40 to 50 percent of honeybee hives, while the tobacco ringspot virus has been blamed for the deaths of honeybees, which pollinate about 90 crops worldwide, generating $14 billion a year. 

Some refuges aren't waiting until 2016 to phase out pesticides, Tracy Loew for the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. Three Oregon refuges created to protect Dusky Canada Geese—Baskett Slough, west of Salem; Ankeny, south of Salem; and William L. Finley near Corvallis—"already prohibit application of neonicotinoid pesticides and don't allow genetically modified crops . . . but neonicotinoid-coated seeds for sorghum and possibly corn are used in the complex." Farmers in the refuges have been given until the end of the year to stop using the seeds out of concern that birds and small mammals will eat them. (Read more)