Under the strategy, coupled with a pollinator research action plan, EPA will continue its effort to better understand and reduce risks of the controversial neonicotinoid pesticides, which advocates argue pose a persistent risk to bees because they are systemic, meaning the chemical is taken up into plants' pollen and nectar.

EPA will also accelerate a Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) registration review of four neonicotinoids, and craft new testing guidelines for improving studies of pesticides' risks to bees.  The report states that “Mitigating the effects of pesticides on bees is a priority for the Federal government, as both bee pollination and insect control are essential to the success of agriculture… It is the misuse and overuse of these pesticides that leads to adverse ecological and human health consequences.”

The strategy stops short of environmentalists' calls for a ban on neonicotinoids.

EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been working for years to stem declines in pollinators seen since 2006.  In 2013, EPA and USDA blamed bee declines on a variety of factors, including declining habitat and genetic diversity, as well as exposure to pesticides and the varroa mite, a common bee parasite.  In yesterday’s released report and the companion research action plan, federal officials say it remains unclear how the various factors, individually and collectively, affect bee health and that additional research is necessary.

On pesticides that could pose a risk to pollinators, the strategy outlines an action plan for EPA to research and reduce risks of pesticides to bees and other pollinators, especially the monarch butterfly.

This month, EPA will issue for public comment a proposed ban on foliar applications, during bloom, of pesticides deemed acutely toxic to bees at sites where bees are under contract for pollination services. The proposed measures will include advisory statements and enforceable label language. “Application of a toxic pesticide in this scenario is near certain to result in adverse effects to pollinators,” the strategy says.

To reduce acute exposures in other situations, the strategy calls for encouraging and assisting state regulators in crafting pollinator protection plans based on improving coordination and communication between beekeepers and pesticide applicators. State regulators have said they are wrestling with how to define the scope and success of plans they are crafting that aim to reduce bees' exposures to pesticides after regulators dropped language from draft pollinator guidance that said EPA would review and approve state strategies.

To address risks to bees from systemic pesticides, including potential sub-lethal effects, the strategy says EPA will issue new exposure and effect study protocols for federally-supported studies. The protocols are to support EPA's already ongoing implementation of a new pollinator risk assessment framework released last year.

The framework seeks to better assess risks of pesticides to pollinators, such as potential sub-lethal effects to bees that could then weaken an entire hive. EPA in previous statements has acknowledged that traditional pollinator risk assessments have failed to adequately consider those potential risks.

The strategy also calls for EPA to further expedite its FIFRA registration review of four common neonicotinoid pesticides: imidacloprid, clothianidin, dinotefuran and thiamethoxam for completion in the 2016-2017 time frame. In 2013, EPA officials said they had accelerated registration review of certain neonicotinoids, though some of the reviews, which rely on studies that can take years, were still expected to stretch until 2018-2019.

Under the plan, EPA also commits to proposing for public comment a framework for improving the health of monarch butterflies, and suggests future regulatory action on multiple herbicides, which could reduce milkweed on which the butterflies depend. That proposal appears to respond to the Natural Resources Defense Council's petition early last year, asking EPA to review risks of the herbicide glyphosate, commonly used with genetically-modified crops, to address concerns the substance depletes milkweed and thereby harms monarchs.

EPA acknowledges it has a responsibility under FIFRA to protect milkweed, and says the plant may be affected by multiple herbicide compounds. The agency therefore will conduct qualitative and quantitative reviews of substances' risks and benefits for milkweed, rather than following the typical single-chemical approach. “EPA anticipates that a number of actions could be taken to protect monarch butterflies, ranging from changes to pesticide label instructions, to spray drift buffers from critical milkweed resources, to best management practices,” the plan says.