Article by Ron Klataske It is as if “SILENT SPRING” and the lessons of DDT were irrelevant, as now EPA’s “Office of Pesticide Programs” disregards concerns for wildlife.

n 1962, exactly 50 years ago, Rachel The realization that pesticide That agency, we know today as the Carson had just finished writing a book applications can ripple through natural Environmental Protection Agency or the Icalled “Silent Spring” which detailed ecosystems and cause unintended EPA. It remains the lead agency to oversee pesticide usage in the1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s consequences elsewhere, was new to most risk assessment, regulation and appropriate and the impacts thereof. In particular, the of the scientific community and the public. use of pesticides to prevent future adverse book drove home the point that the The unavoidable truth was that DDT was impacts on human and ecological (fish and insecticide DDT was impacting humans causing eagle, falcon and other raptor wildlife) health. and wildlife far beyond the originally populations to plummet by causing To be sure, EPA has many roles targeted insects. Her book began awaking thinning of raptor eggshells, which in turn beyond regulating the labeling and use of the nation to the unintended consequences prevented raptors from fledging young pesticides, but the Office of Pesticide of broad-scale pesticide applications that birds. Programs within EPA is charged with indiscriminately kill wildlife. “Silent That seminal book was in no small way riding herd on that industry, and it is a big Spring” spoke to the myriad of problems responsible for an entire generation of job indeed. Unfortunately, as is sometimes that occur when natural food chains are Americans becoming aware of pesticide the case, it appears that over time some contaminated and/or disrupted by alien issues and developing an appreciation for within that section have become overly chemicals. She noted how it often took how easy it can be to disrupt natural cozy with the very entities they are years or decades to comprehend that functions. It ultimately also played an charged with regulating, and lax in the plummeting populations of one animal important role in the formation of the challenging task that EPA is charged with could be traced back to pesticide or federal government agency that Congress – protecting the environment. During the chemical applications made – with good authorized to oversee pesticide usage to Clinton Administration, Vice President Al intentions – much earlier in time. ensure protection of human and ecological Gore implemented an across-the- health. government directive directive to adopt “Total Quality Management” with the In the photos above: a beautiful, but emaciated, Ferruginous Hawk found unable objective being to “satisfy the customer.” to fly in a field in Logan County, Kansas in 2008. This is the expected destiny for Unfortunately, EPA’s Office of Pesticide raptors that are poisoned with levels of anticoagulants that impair their ability to Programs’ actions indicate that the hunt or withstand the elements. Even with the best of veterinary care available, customer is the manufacturer, rather than it soon died. Most raptors die in the landscape, unrecorded. One Logan County the environment or the public interest. rancher counted 17 dead hawks in one winter season. – Photos by Gregory Today one has to wonder if pesticide Stempien. manufacturers, with the assistance of

44 Prairie Wings WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013 “hired help” in various capacities, rodenticides on the market. It didn’t seem Badgers) that are typically associated with lobbyists and political supporters, have to matter that there were already a variety prairie-dog colonies—and would therefore been able to circumvent safeguards and of rodenticide products labeled for and encounter poisoned prairie dogs. regulations. Some well-informed pesticide effective in killing this burrow-dwelling During the 1960s and ‘70s various program observers have suggested that denizen of the Great Plains. Black-tailed chemicals were evaluated for possible well-placed administrative personnel Prairie Dogs have long been a symbol of prairie-dog control and many were regard the agency as the “gateway to the shortgrass and midgrass prairies and dismissed for one reason or another. A market” and are said to keep the dedicated, are a “keystone species” because so many notable line of potential products called science-based employees at bay. If this is other wildlife species depend on or derive anticoagulants, due to their ability to thin the case the agency has become so benefit from their presence and colonies. blood, were evaluated. If enough of the politically diverted or distracted by other They are also a widely-hated species by anticoagulant is consumed, the animal can issues that it has forgotten its core many ranchers who view them as completely bleed out – either internally or responsibilities. It is as if “Silent Spring” competing for forage that would otherwise externally. However, it can take from one and the lessons of DDT are irrelevant as be consumed by livestock and/or to four weeks for prairie dogs to bleed out EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs negatively impacting the rangelands. and die after consuming an anticoagulant. methodically green lights pesticide after Consequently, various poisons have been Two of the anticoagulants, pesticide without due diligence, thereby concocted since the early 1900s to destroy Chlorophacinone and Diphacinone, were setting up potential ecological train wrecks prairie dogs. However, in the 1960s, after evaluated and found to have the ability to that aspiring authors can reveal in future decades of various poisons being used to kill prairie dogs. However, due to the “Silent Spring” sequels. kill them, there was a push to move toward chemicals’ slow-acting nature and Recent examples include EPA’s rushed rodenticides that wouldn’t secondarily persistence within the prairie dog, those efforts to get additional prairie dog-control poison the next animal in the food chain early tests determined the chemicals that might consume a poisoned prairie wouldn’t make good prairie-dog poisons dog. New poisons were developed that because of the secondary poisoning hazard would efficiently kill prairie dogs but to non-target animals. Other products, wouldn’t poison the raptors or most notably zinc phosphide, were mammalian predators (such as Swift developed and thus filled the niche Foxes, Black-footed Ferrets and demanded by landowners for an effective prairie-dog rodenticide. Since the 1990s, chemical manufacturers wanting to boost sales of anticoagulant-based products renewed their quest to promote anticoagulants as prairie-dog rodenticides. They apparently thought they needed the assistance of an Extension Service research program 2005 photos of dead and dying prairie dogs with a land-grant college. These approximately twelve days after an (illegal) colleges are often hungry for funds, application of Rozol® on a S.D. colony prior to EPA approval in that state. More than fifty were observed over an area of about 160 acres with hundreds more picked up over the course of several weeks. In spite of this type of evidence on the extended dying process and high risk of secondary poisoning, EPA has now made Rozol® (and Kaput-D®) available in ten states. – USFWS law enforcement Rozol® bait division photos.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience. – George Bernard Shaw

WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013 Prairie Wings 45 A concept, or more aptly Department of Agriculture applied to EPA a ruse, was put forth that for approval for use in the state under prairie-dog poisoners, in Section 24(c) of the Federal Insecticide, conjunction with the Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), landowners or managers, a Special Local Needs (SLN) provision. would retrieve (and bury) With funds funneled through KSU and the poisoned prairie dogs directly to the staff member for follow-up before other animals could consulting services, the ground was consume them. Only a naïve already plowed for Liphatech in this state. fool would believe there to The salary for the wildlife extension One of two Bald Eagles found that succumbed to be the interest and/or time specialist is partially funded by the Kansas cholorophacinone poisoning in Nebraska. – USFWS available by the people Department of Wildlife and Parks, so in poisoning prairie dogs to essence the agency’s endorsement was return to a colony dozens of implied along with that of KSU. That may which are provided by industry to finance times to collect dead and have been the reason it was overlooked at field studies on the efficacy of chemicals dying prairie dogs. In addition, finding the the time by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designed to kill insects or other pests, or poisoned prairie dogs in diverse (USFWS) staff in Kansas. “weeds and brush” (everything that is not vegetation and terrain is a challenge, and An “SLN” is supposed to be based on grass in pastures and on roadsides). This to do it effectively one would have to an existing or imminent pest problem template has been a pathway to collect them early each day prior to the within a state for which the state lead registration used many times in the past. If hunting of raptors and late each day prior agency, based upon satisfactory to the hunting of nocturnal mammalian all goes according to plan, this partnership supporting information, has determined predators. Badgers, Swift Foxes and gives pesticide/herbicide manufacturers that an appropriate federally registered Black-footed Ferrets further complicate something akin to a university’s “good pesticide product is not sufficiently their exposure to secondary poisoning by housekeeping seal of approval,” and available. First, as previously noted, there entering or digging up burrows to sometimes they acquire the principal were and are other effective rodenticides consume dead and dying prairie dogs. investigator as a consultant to help available without the secondary poisoning advocate either officially or unofficially Enter the EPA Office of Pesticide issues. for the product. Programs: with all the gullibility you’d Second, EPA originally requested That proved to be the case with Rozol® expect from out-of-touch and/or consultation with USFWS on Prairie Dog Bait. Sadly, officials in disinterested Washington bureaucrats, chlorophacinone (Rozol®) and Kansas became the enablers. Field trials somebody in that office was eager to diphacinone (Kaput-D®) in 1991. USFWS conducted under the auspices of the KSU believe that pesticide applicators would issued a biological opinion in March of Research and Extension Service by the continually return to poisoned prairie-dog 1993, identifying concerns with the use of wildlife specialist determined that this colonies for weeks to retrieve dead prairie chlorophacinone for specific rodent- anticoagulant was lethal to a large dogs. Other federal biologists pointed out control activities and that this use would majority of prairie dogs in a treated colony to EPA staff in that office that during the jeopardize the continued existence of 21 – exactly what Liphatech wanted for one-to-four weeks that prairie dogs in a listed species (at that time). The use of marketing purposes. colony are bleeding out, after consuming chlorophacinone for prairie dog control the anticoagulant poison, there are live – But, the negative ecological impacts was not included as a use in this but progressively debilitated – prairie were not thoroughly studied prior to a rush consultation and thus not evaluated with ® dogs that also pose a hazard to whatever to get Rozol labeled for sale and use. It new future uses expected to undergo their might consume them. EPA needed a was left to others to try to contend with all own section 7 consultation. Under remedy for that dilemma. The chemical of the collateral damage that has and is Section 3 of FIFRA, consultation with manufacturers suggested, and EPA was occurring. As to be expected, a lot of the USFWS must be conducted for any quick to agree, that adjusting the chemical dead and dying prairie dogs end up on the new use. surface, which obviously poses hazards to label to include retrieval and disposal of Nebraska was the next target for predators and scavengers, including even the moribund (live) prairie dogs Liphatech, the manufacturer of Rozol®. In raptors. Ferruginous Hawks and Golden along with the dead prairie dogs would the spring of 2006 the company asked the Eagle are just two among many victims. thus solve the secondary poisoning issue. state’s pesticide board to approve this Due to eradication of prairie dogs and One wonders if EPA could really be that toxicant for statewide use under the other food sources, poisoning and easy to fool? It turns out the answer is an second “Special Local Needs” request. shooting, these two magnificent raptors embarrassing, yes. Biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife are now plunging toward extinction as Obtaining approval for the use of breeding species in Kansas, with a further Rozol® first occurred in Kansas in 2005 Service office in Nebraska and the toll taken on migrants. and proved to be an easy task. The Kansas Nebraska Game and Parks Commission opposed the request. However, the

46 Prairie Wings WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013 wildlife extension agent from Kansas was By August 2008 the Western USFWS in April of 2012 emphasized that there on behalf of the manufacturer to Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies the measures included to protect listed urge approval, and he also recruited and (WAFWA) wrote to EPA urging the species are inadequate for protecting convinced his Nebraska extension agency to “rescind any existing permits” raptors and that unpermitted take of eagles counterpart to add another voice to (for Rozol® and Kaput-D®) and and other migratory birds are expected to Liphatech’s request. State pesticide boards immediately suspend issuing any more continue despite current Rozol® use are comprised principally of folks permits. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife restrictions. involved in the industry as applicators or Service sent similar letters. The concern With official comment letters and agricultural users. They are not expected was that the widespread use of the litigation, Audubon of Kansas has to be ecologists; EPA should fulfill that anticoagulants was resulting in the deaths partnered with Defenders of Wildlife function as a backstop. Approval was of unknown numbers of “non-target- (which has provided legal expertise and granted and EPA took no action to wildlife species”. The EPA Office of leadership in Washington D.C.) and the disapprove, possibly in part because they Pesticide Programs acts as if it could care American Bird Conservancy to try to had already opened the gate to marketing less about the need to consult with the persuade EPA to address the ecological and use in Kansas. USFWS, even on endangered species, and risks of these poisons and the concerns Liphatech printed thousands of concerns expressed about migratory birds expressed by WAFWA and USFWS. promotional brochures with testimonials seem to fall on deaf ears. The biological Anticoagulant poisoning of raptors can espousing the high efficacy of Rozol® in opinion drafted by start them on a debilitating spiral towards Kansas and had them placed in death. The poison may not kill them extension offices and farm stores directly or immediately; however, the throughout the west. The ten-page anticoagulant toll on body condition – and publication is fraught with misleading the ability of these precision athletes to statements, and omissions. It makes no capture elusive prey – more likely renders mention of the fact that the label them incapable of surviving in the wild requires removal of dead prairie dogs and/or successfully reproducing and or that there is a substantial risk of rearing young. Scientists secondary poisoning. In contrast, it states on the cover that Rozol® use is “With less effort and less risk to non- targets.” That statement targets competition from Zinc Phosphide Prairie Dog Bait, a toxicant that does not present nearly as much risk of secondary poisoning, but does involve the added work of pre- baiting with untreated oats. The implication is that if one overlooks the need to remove dead prairie dogs, one can poison the colony with Rozol® in one pass and move on. In fact, a sales representative for Liphatech suggested at a Logan County Commission meeting in 2006 that people shouldn’t need to worry about picking up dead prairie dogs. Subsequent label changes now indicate even live prairie dogs are to be retrieved. The floodgates were opened and within the next couple of years, semi loads of Rozol® were being delivered throughout western Kansas, and other Great Plains states that followed suit and received Special Local Needs approval from EPA. Logan County Kansas officials alone purchased 46 tons of Rozol® in 2008 as part of their attempt to force Note that the cover states that ® every landowner in that county to Rozol use is “With less effort eradicate prairie dogs. and less risk to non-targets.”

WINTER 2012 / SPRING 2013 Prairie Wings 47 THE GRASSLAND RAPTOR with the U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center have IN GREATEST JEOPARDY demonstrated that the standardized avian acute oral toxicity test, used by EPA to The Ferruginous Hawk, perhaps more than generate risk assessments for the any other raptor, is an indicator of the health rodenticides such as chlorophacinone and of grassland and shrub-steppe ecosystems. diphacinone, underestimate the real-world Because the species is a small-mammal hazards to wild raptors. Recommendations specialist, the presence of ground squirrels, to correct the limitations of the prairie dogs, pocket gophers, hares, and rabbits has historically been correlated standardized acute oral toxicity test with stable hawk popula.ons. The loss of these prey species from control and methodology have resulted in stonewalling eradica.on programs, and the poten.al effects of secondary poisoning from by EPA, and if officially proposed will roden.cides are especially concerning because they occur not only within likely cause pesticide lobbyists and their Ferruginous Hawk breeding ranges, but where the con.nental popula.on of political allies to "howl" louder than Ferruginous Hawks congregate to forage. coyotes on steroids. A er breeding, Ferruginous Hawks east and west of the Con.nental Divide Tragically, the EPA Office of Pesticide arrive in large numbers in the northern plains to feed on Richardson’s Ground Programs has for the 2012 prairie dog Squirrels, and in winter many of these hawks migrate to the southern and central poisoning season (October to April) Great Plains to Black-tailed Prairie Dog colonies. On these same ranges authorized two anticoagulant rodenticides Ferruginous Hawks are experiencing other stressors including wind turbines, new for the purpose of killing prairie dogs residen.al development, conversion of na.ve habitat, exposure to West Nile Virus, under the trade names Rozol® and Kaput- electrocu.on, and poaching, that either result in direct mortality or displacement D®. Looking forward, we can expect the from these tradi.onal habitats. Addi.onally, Ferruginous Hawks do not compete skies of the Great Plains to be increasingly well with Red-tailed Hawks where habitat is altered, and the result is that empty, especially of Ferruginous Hawks Ferruginous Hawks are being forced into smaller na.ve ranges that are o en of and Golden Eagles, and the remaining increasingly poorer quality. shortgrass prairies to be less The Ferruginous Hawk is listed as Threatened in Canada, a Species of accommodating for Swift Foxes and Conserva.on Concern in the United States, and a Species of Concern in Mexico. Black-footed Ferrets. The status of Ferruginous Hawks in the U.S. has been shrouded with uncertainty through the years because of Once EPA gives a green light for use of presumed widespread nomadism a toxicant, even though they haven’t of the species that makes adequately considered the risks or determina.on of its breeding consulted with the USFWS, it is difficult popula.on status difficult. This to pull it out of distribution. It becomes was a factor in the U.S. Fish and hugely profitable for companies to later Wildlife Service decision to not disregard EPA risk-mitigation decisions. formally list the species as Industry attorneys and lobbyists force the threatened or endangered in agency into years of administrative 1992. However, recent migra.on processes and litigation prior to removal of studies of adult and juvenile The remains of prairie dogs in this nest in the pesticides in question, if it ever comes. Ferruginous Hawks failed to find Oklahoma attest to the importance of this Once something is registered it takes a nomadism among any range- prey. The hawk pictured above is eating a Herculean effort to get it removed. This ground squirrel. wide breeding popula.ons was particularly evident with carbofuran, (www.ferruginoushawk.org). an insecticide that resulted in millions of From a regional perspec.ve, the species is listed as Threatened, Endangered, or bird kills annually prior to the 2009 Imperiled in 7 northern states or provinces in the American west, including a 2009 restrictions on most uses in granular form. Endangered lis.ng in Alberta, one of the two historic nes.ng strongholds for the Carbofuran also causes neurological species. Nine western states iden.fy the Ferruginous Hawk as a species of damage in humans. concern. Widespread concerns from federal, state and provincial lis.ngs warrant EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs monitoring of hawk popula.ons and point to the need for further review of the handling of registration of rodenticides that Ferruginous Hawk as a federal candidate for T/E species lis.ng in the U.S. pose substantial secondary-poisoning risks – James W. Watson (WDFW) to other wildlife, especially imperiled Jim Watson is a Wildlife Research Scientist with the Washington Department of Fish species, is bad precedent unworthy of an and Wildlife, specializing in raptor studies. His raptor investigations span 40 years, agency with such noble beginnings rooted including a 10-year international study of Ferruginous Hawk migration, and current in a book called “Silent Spring”. studies on wind turbine/raptor interactions. Americans and our continent’s wildlife resources deserve better stewardship.

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