John,

The Environmental Protection Agency's pesticide program just released its plan for implementing the Vulnerable Species Pilot Project to provide targeted, on-the-ground protection to 27 endangered plants and animals who need it most urgently, including the rusty patched bumblebee and American burying beetle.

After decades of ignoring the plight of endangered species, the EPA is taking an important step towards prohibiting most pesticide use in the few places on Earth these species persist.

Big Ag is not going to like these common-sense measures. We expect the agriculture industry will be aggressively pressuring the agency to change course and drop meaningful protections. That’s why we need you to show your support for the EPA’s new pilot program now if we’re going to protect these 27 species.

Under this plan, many methods of deploying pesticides would be prohibited in the places where rusty patched bumblebees, American burying beetles, Atwater prairie chickens, and two dozen other endangered species live.

But there are a couple things the EPA could do to make it even stronger, like including pesticide-coated seeds in both the avoidance and mitigation zones.

Join us in telling the EPA to strengthen and implement the pesticide protections in the Vulnerable Species Pilot Project.