Pesticides Program

The Pesticide Program assesses the needs, risks and environmental effects of pesticides on tribal lands and educates pueblos and tribes on safe pest and pesticide management practices. The program provides outreach and technical assistance to support those pueblos and tribes in order to protect and restore tribal lands and environments and promote public health and safety.

The Pesticide Program offers training and assistance to pueblos and tribes utilizing contractors who may be applying pesticides in their community and who have questions regarding specific Pesticides of Concern (POCs) or Pesticides of Interest (POIs) for future assessments. Pueblos and tribes are encouraged to pay close attention to pesticides in their community and implement a tracking system if there is a change in use patterns.

Services

The pesticide safety training is offered in-house by OETA staff. Topics include: how to read a pesticide label, personal protective equipment (PPE) selection, and the handling, storage, and disposal of pesticide products. This training is targeted toward the general community or other tribal programs—for example, Head Start, childcare programs, senior centers, and housing departments. 

Pesticide safety is an important concept for everyone to understand since many people apply their own pesticides in their homes or workplaces. Pesticide safety is a topic often covered in conjunction with discussion on other household hazardous materials or indoor air quality.

OETA partners with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture Certification and Training (C&T) Program to provide the pesticide applicator to tribes. Since most tribes do not have their own approved C&T plans, applicators must get licensed first through the state, and then apply for their federal license through EPA. A license is only required for those applicators who are applying restricted use pesticides (RUPs), but OETA recommends the training for any tribal employees who apply pesticides. While this training covers basic pesticide safety, it goes more in-depth to include equipment calibration, off-target drift, categorical licensing, endangered species, identification, and biology of specific pests. These trainings are most often attended by tribal natural resource staff who are applying herbicide for invasive species control.

Integrated Pest Management is the concept of using various pest management techniques including mechanical removal, habitat modification, biological control, and using chemical pest control only when necessary. The Pesticide Program can provide IPM training in-house, but often will reach out to the EPA Center for IPM for guidance, information, or to coordinate workshops.

For an IPM plan to work most efficiently, everyone in the community needs to work together to implement best management practices. Therefore, the goal of OETA is to reach as many subsets of the community as possible—such as schools, food services, tribal offices, senior centers, housing departments, and residents when conducting an IPM training or workshop.

A facility walk-through can be conducted at any tribal facility, including schools, tribal offices, and senior centers. The purpose of a walk-through is to assess the facility for vulnerabilities to pests. These are things like missing or cracked door sweeps, window screens, standing moisture, and hygiene. 

The goal is to eliminate vulnerabilities as part of an integrated pest management (IPM) plan so the facility may be able to reduce the use of pesticides and potential exposure to the served community. If an infestation is found, the program will recommend that the facility manager contact a licensed pest management professional. Pictures of any findings are taken during the walk-through and placed into a report with recommendations for the facility manager.

Sometimes a pueblo or tribe will approach the Pesticide Program regarding a specific pest. The most common pests inquired about are bed bugs and prairie dogs.

Bed bug trainings have been developed and are offered in-house. Bed bug trainings are provided to the general community, Head Starts, childcare, senior center, and housing department staff. The training includes information on bed bug biology, behavior, and management strategies. Along with the presentation, OETA will hand out the Bed Bug Educational Packet, which was developed by the Tribal Pesticide Program Council.

In past years, OETA has partnered with New Mexico State University Extension and the US Department of Agriculture to provide training on the management of prairie dogs and other burrowing rodents to community growers. The training provides information on biology, behavior, and management strategies as well. This training has been brought out to the field where participants learn to safely handle pesticides and devices to control prairie dogs. Participants learn the difference between general use pesticides which can be purchased over the counter and restricted use pesticides, which they must have a license to purchase and apply.

Suppose OETA staff is not familiar with a specific pest. In that case, the program will seek out information or expert advice from various agencies in the region and work to develop a potential training for that community.

The Pesticide Program recently established a commitment to engage in more pollinator awareness and protection activities. The program was fortunate to be offered an increase in funding over the last couple of fiscal years and has begun planning to build pollinator gardens in a few tribal communities. 

The goal is for the gardens to act as learning tools. The gardens will be accompanied by signage that identifies the native plant and pollinator species that may be found in the garden, as well as tips for what community members can do to protect and promote pollinators and their habitat.

In 2020 the program partnered with two pueblos, Santa Fe Indian School, and several branches of NMSU Extension Services to plant two gardens. 

In years to come, the program hopes to maintain and develop these partnerships to provide pollinator outreach to all interested pueblos and tribes served by OETA.

The Pesticide Program has recently made a commitment to working more closely with Tribal Agriculture Programs. In past years, the program worked mostly through the environment or natural resource programs; however, it had not received much information about pest or pesticide concerns when it comes to farming or ranching. 

The goal is to assess the needs of the agriculture and range programs and develop training, outreach materials, and other services to specifically meet the needs of the farmers and ranchers in each community. 

OETA can assist in peer matching between the programs to discuss management practices and concerns that may be coming down the pipeline. The OETA Pesticide Program hopes to establish and maintain strong relationships with agriculture programs for the life of the program.

Each year, OETA meets one-on-one with the environmental and natural resource programs of 22 pueblos and tribes to update the strategic plan for the office. During these meetings, the Pesticide Program will conduct a pesticide use assessment. The purpose is to assess how pesticides are being handled, stored, and disposed of in the community, who is using them, whether the tribe tracks this use, and whether the tribe needs additional resources such as PPE or training.

Access to Information

The Pesticide Program assesses the needs, risks and environmental effects of pesticides on tribal lands and educates pueblos and tribes on safe pest and pesticide management practices. The program provides outreach and technical assistance to support those pueblos and tribes in order to protect and restore tribal lands and environments and promote public health and safety. 

The Pesticide Program offers training and assistance to pueblos and tribes utilizing contractors who may be applying pesticides in their community and who have questions regarding specific Pesticides of Concern (POCs) or Pesticides of Interest (POIs) for future assessments. Pueblos and tribes are encouraged to pay close attention to pesticides in their community and implement a tracking system if there is a change in use patterns.