MSU Extension Bulletins Live! Two

All right. Hi, my name is Erin Lizotte, and I'm the integrated pest management coordinator at Michigan State University extension. Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the changes that are coming to pesticide labels from the federal level, specifically a new system called bulletins Live two. So there are changes that are coming to pesticide labels across the United States, and they're in an effort to address concerns that are related to the impact of pesticides on threatened or endangered species. And these changes come as a direct result of litigation at the federal level. So in response to litigation, the EPA has developed a new approach, a new strategy, and it utilizes this new online interface called bulletins Live two. And bulletins Live two is basically a URL that you visit as directed by some pesticide labels to determine if there are pesticide use limitations for the parameters of a specific application. So the location, the product that you're using, and the time of application in terms of the month. The system is intended to avoid blanket use restrictions on pesticides and instead limit those restrictions to geographic and time specific use patterns that need to be avoided to protect threatened or endangered species. So obviously, the Environmental Protection Agency plays an important role in implementing the Endangered Species Act, and that includes ensuring that pesticides don't injure, jeopardize, or threaten endangered species or impact their critical habitat. And the changes that we're seeing now are a direct result of court mandates resulting from some litigation. If the Environmental Protection Agency determines in their biological evaluation of a pesticide that that product could affect listed species or their critical habitat, then they initiate a consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service or sometimes even the National Marine Fisheries Service or a combination of both. And then those agencies take a look at that pesticide, the potential biological impact, and determine if they think it's going to jeopardize that listed species or their critical habitat. And then if they do find cause that there would be an issue there, then they propose measures to avoid those negative impacts of pesticide application. So the identified mitigation measures to protect those threatened species or endangered species rather, are then aggregated into this new online system called bulletins Li two or BLT for short. So these bulletins set forth geographic time and pesticide specific use limitations for the protection of threatened and endangered species and their habitat. And the impacted applications, so those for which there are additional restrictions are known as PULAs or pesticide use limitation areas. Pesticides that are impacted by these changes will include a new section under the directions for use on their label that requires applicators to visit the BLT website to check for any additional use limitation. As always, compliance with these new regulation is the responsibility of the applicator. Currently, most of the impacted labels are herbicides and insecticides and that's just based on the way EPA has rolled out their strategies. The first strategy that came out was the herbicide strategy. We now have an insecticide strategy. It is likely that we'll have a fungicide strategy forthcoming, and then additional pesticide classifications will be added as well. Products are added to the BLT system as part of their registration review process or their first time registration. So products are added as that occurs, and so the system is kind of a living system, so it changes. To understand if your product is in the BLT system, you just need to look for that directive under the directions for use section. So it is the label in hand that counts. So even if the product is added to the system, if you have product on the shelf that you purchased before that label change, you follow the directions under the label you have in hand. There are currently 15 products that have impacted areas in Michigan where there are additional limitations. However, many more pesticide labels will have the directive to send you to Bulletins Live! Two. So simply having the directive that you need to go to Bulletins Live! Two to check for a pesticide use limitation does not mean you will have pesticide use limitations. So there's a much smaller pool of products, which I'll share with you the current list of those that are impacted in Michigan. Applicators can check the bulletins live to system up to six months before an application. So this is something that can be done well in advance of the application, particularly those that you know about, right? So there's always exceptions where we might need to use a product that we didn't realize we were going to need to use in a given year. But for a lot of us, we know the products we're going to use. We probably know the application sites, and we can probably get pretty close to the timing that we're going to use them. So in those cases, I'd encourage folks to visit the site, check those labels, see what's going on, and if any of this might impact you. So this is a list of product that does have pesticide use limitations in the bulletins live to system for some locations in Michigan. And this list was generated in February of 2025. So keep in mind this is an active system. It can change. But just to give you an idea, maybe trigger you to check the system if those are something you use regularly in your applications that you would want to check the system. So if a pesticide label directs you to the BLT system, you're required to follow the use limitations found both on the regular label that's attached to your product, as well as those limitations in the BLT system. It's almost works like a label expansion or like a special local needs label. Again, applicators are only required to consult the BLT system if the label in hand that came with the pesticide container in their possession directs them to. Keep in mind, there may not be any additional pesticide specific use limitations for your site or application timing, and though not required, applicators are encouraged to print or save the bulletin along with their pesticide records even if there are no pesticide use limitations. Here we've shared a little picture of what the BLT website looks like. Really, the BLT website is a map interface. A lot of these pesticide use limitation areas are based on geographic features or cover type features where we know there may be habitat for these endangered species. Then we'll walk through a couple examples now. So let's explore a couple examples in the BLT system. Here's an example utilizing the Research Center in Northwest Michigan with a proposed Drexel Malathion application in June. And so essentially, you go to this URL that is listed on the label and you enter the product. It's actually easier to use the EPA number. So if you grab that off the label, it'll make life easier. You put the application month. So not the month you're looking it up. So if I look this up in December, but the application is going to be in June, I put the application month in there. And then I can put a street address or coordinates in the location search, or what I find easiest is I just switch this map widget from the transit view over to a satellite view and I get close, and then I can better delineate my field edges or my application area. Once I've defined those things, I click within this map area and this little printable bulletin button up in the upper right hand corner will turn from red to green, and then I can click through in that printable bulletin button. So once I click the principal bulletin button, it'll generate a file that I can print, I can download it and save it, I can view it on my computer. And what it includes is a map of the user defined area, the application month, and the product that I'm using. And then below it, it will include, if there are or are not any pesticide use limitations. So in this case, we can see there are currently no pesticide use limitations within the printed map view for the month and year and product you selected. So again, although not required, I would encourage folks to save a copy of the bulletin or print one off if you're keeping paper records. I think it just goes a long way to show that you're doing your due diligence and that you did check the site. In example two, we actually have a pesticide use limitation area. I, in this case, use the West Michigan Research Station for a March intrepid application and right away, my map turns pink and I can tell there's something different. That's indicative that there is a pesticide use limitation area here. Again, I click on the map, my little button will turn from red to green, and then I can view what those pesticide use limitations are. Again, my bulletin is going to include the product, the month, a map of the area that we're talking about. In this case, the limitation includes not applying pesticides or product within 1 mile of sandy habitats that support wild lupine plants. So I pulled up this example because I want folks to understand that the directives are not always easy to understand or implement or feel like you're comfortable knowing that you're following the letter of the law. In a case like this, we would want to follow up with EPA, MDARD, or reach out to MSU, and we can provide additional assistance for that. We have been providing feedback to EPA that we need more refinement of this process. So we'd like them to tell us if we're within a mile of habitat or cover type that supports wild lupine plants, and we've been assured that that refinement will continue to occur. So the hope is that over time, these, um, limitations will become clearer and more easy to interpret, more prescriptive in nature. So I did include the help desk for EPA, a hotline number there, and then of course, you can also work through your MSU extension ag agent or reach out to your county office for assistance, and we can help you track down those questions and get to the right answers. So in summary, the list of impacted products and locations will continue to expand or in some cases, they might even contract as we refine these maps. But just be sure to keep checking labels, particularly as you purchase products. I mean, we should always be carefully reviewing the label, but I just want to call out specifically that directions for use section may have a new directive to visit the BLT system. Again, you can check those labels well in advance of application or even purchase to understand if you have any potential use limitations up to six months in advance of the application. And I encourage folks to save that bulletin in their pesticide records, even though it is not a requirement at this time. So again, lots of support resources are available. To learn more, you can visit the EPA website. They actually have a nice tutorial that walks you through the BLT system. MDARD and our partners there have been awesome about answering questions and are very much on top of these changes that are coming to the to Michigan, and the larger United States. Or you can visit our web page, the MSUE bulletins live to web page, which is a Googleable page. And we've got links to all these resources laid out there for you just to make it a little bit easier to navigate.