Center For Biological Diversity: Help Overhaul This Shady Pesticide-Spraying Program

For decades the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, aka APHIS, has run an antiquated and highly secretive program that allows insecticide spraying to kill native grasshoppers and Mormon crickets on public lands in 17 states. This is done to keep insects from “competing” with cows for grass. The public lands APHIS targets for spraying are home to an astonishing diversity of wildlife, including imperiled sage grouse — who eat grasshoppers and Mormon crickets — and vulnerable pollinators like butterflies and bees. Spraying these lands harms wildlife, and because APHIS is so secretive about its activities, most people visiting have no idea whether a given area has been (or will be) sprayed. Now, thanks to a legal victory by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, APHIS is being forced to reassess its grasshopper-and-cricket-killing program — and it needs your feedback. Tell APHIS to completely overhaul its approach, stop drenching sensitive public lands with insecticides, and protect wildlife, people, and public lands. Take ACTION.