WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to release records documenting its finding that insecticides sprayed across millions of acres in 17 states do not harm any of the area’s 201 endangered plants and animals.

The Service’s assessment of a U.S. Department of Agriculture spray program designed to kill native grasshoppers and crickets was released the night before oral argument in a lawsuit brought by the Center and allies challenging the program’s legality.

“The public deserves to see the science underpinning the Service’s dubious conclusion that drenching millions of acres with deadly insecticides won’t harm a single endangered species,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The agency’s failure to release all the records that supposedly support the decision inspires no confidence that they got this right. We’re going to court to find out what happened and make sure the rare birds, frogs, fish and butterflies who live in these areas get the protection they need to survive.”

The pesticide program is overseen by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a secretive USDA agency that allows widespread rangeland spraying of multiple insecticides known to be harmful to many of the region’s protected species.

The goal of the spraying program is to prevent native grasshoppers and Mormon crickets from competing with livestock for forage.

Public rangelands in western states are important, multi-use lands that provide critical habitat for bees, butterflies and other insects who, along with native grasshoppers, support a rich diversity of birds, wildlife and plants. Greater sage grouse, monarch butterflies, and many other species inhabiting western lands are already in steep decline and vulnerable to harm from APHIS’s pesticide spraying. Multiple bumblebee species native to western states have disappeared or declined from areas where they once lived.

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s approval of the spraying program includes measures like pesticide spray buffers to reduce harm to federally protected species.

The Center and allies have now won their lawsuit challenging the program. A federal judge found that the spraying program had failed to comply with the legal requirement that federal agencies incorporate integrated pest management strategies into pesticide spraying actions; consider the baseline conditions of butterflies, moths and native bees in spray areas; and weigh the cumulative effects of its program when combined with other pesticide spraying in these areas.

The ruling means APHIS will have to consider these effects and reconsider its spray-first approach to grasshopper control. The court has yet to release a decision on remedies.

Data transparency problems have plagued the grasshopper spraying program for years, prompting Congress to issue a statement in March 2024 directing APHIS to operate its program with greater transparency. In withholding records from its review of the program, the Fish and Wildlife Service only deepens those transparency concerns.