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Northwest wildlife refuges to phase out pesticide

FILE - In this May 9 2005, file photo, shows snow geese and Canada geese preparing to land on marsh at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge near Merrill, Ore. National wildlife refuges in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Hawaii are phasing out pesticides from the group known as neonicotinoids because they pose a danger to bees and other pollinators. (AP Photo/Jeff Barnard, File)
FILE - In this May 9 2005, file photo, shows snow geese and Canada geese preparing to land on marsh at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge near Merrill, Ore. National wildlife refuges in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Hawaii are phasing out pesticides from the group known as neonicotinoids because they pose a danger to bees and other pollinators. (AP Photo/Jeff Barnard, File)

By Associated Press 2 min read

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) – Federal wildlife refuges in the Northwest and Hawaii will phase out a class of pesticides that are chemically similar to nicotine because they pose a threat to bees and other pollinators key to crop growth.

The region covering Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Hawaii is the first in the agency to ban neonicotinoids. There is room for exemptions, but the goal is to phase out the pesticides by January 2016, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Miel Corbett said Monday.

The agency’s pest management policy calls for pest-killing methods that pose the least risk to wildlife, and there is scientific evidence that neonicotinoids kill bees and other pollinators, said Kim Trust, the agency’s deputy regional director of refuges.

“We made the decision because we are concerned over the global decline in all pollinators – bees and butterflies,” she said.

Pollinators such as domestic honeybees and wild bumblebees and butterflies are vital to the proliferation of domestic crops as well as wild plants, spreading pollen that fertilizes the seed-producing flowers while they gather nectar. Their numbers have been declining worldwide.