Student mock hearing highlights clash between pesticide regulation and endangered‑species protections

Students from East High School27s Frontier FFA chapter presented a mock congressional hearing before the Agriculture, State & Public Lands & Water Resources Committee in Cheyenne on whether pesticides27 benefits to crop production outweigh risks to endangered species.

The session brought testimony from four witnesses and a series of public commenters who framed the dispute around two federal laws: the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Attorneys and agency officials disagreed about whether compliance with FIFRA alone protects listed species and what additional steps, if any, are required under the ESA.

"Compliance with FIFRA does not satisfy the ESA requirements," said Paula Frost, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, who testified that ESA protections require separate analysis and, where necessary, modification of pesticide approvals.

Karen Bud Fallon, an attorney who identified herself with Bud Fallon Law Offices in Cheyenne, told the committee that FIFRA…