A house RESOLUTION

 

TO ENCOURAGE COUNTIES, MUNICIPALITIES, AND OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS OF THE STATE, INCLUDING SCHOOL DISTRICTS, TO ESTABLISH THE USE OF ORGANICS-FIRST INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND STANDARDS THAT WOULD PRIORITIZE THE USE OF PREVENTION-BASED, LEAST TOXIC, ORGANIC PRACTICES AND PROHIBIT THE USE OF SYNTHETIC PESTICIDES FOR PUBLIC LAND MANAGEMENT, INCLUDING HABITAT RESTORATION AND ROADSIDE MANAGEMENT.

 

Whereas, South Carolina's public lands, parks, roadside corridors, and waterways are shared community assets. Routine synthetic pesticide and herbicide applications create avoidable exposure pathways for residents, workers, and wildlife, and increase stormwater and watershed risks. The use of organic practices can help create and maintain healthy landscapes and ecosystems while reducing chemical dependence; and

 

Whereas, South Carolina counties, municipalities, and political subdivisions, including school districts, have an opportunity to be good stewards of the natural resources with which the Palmetto State has been blessed by implementing land management practices that prioritize the use of organics-first integrated pest management that is a prevention-based, least toxic, organic approach to managing pests and invasive plants in order to sustain healthier ecosystems and natural habitats across our communities' public spaces, benefitting public health, flora, and fauna; and

 

Whereas, Coastal South Carolina research suggests a year-round population of monarch butterflies that relies on wetlands and Sea Island habitats and the state honey bee population already faces challenges due to environmental, parasitic, and chemical stressors, both realities which underscore the importance of pesticide-reduction and habitat protection on public lands, and local demand is rising for safer parks, playgrounds, athletic fields, and right-of-way management practices that protect pollinators and waterways; and

 

Whereas, other jurisdictions have demonstrated the ability to implement and promote workable pesticide safeguard practices, including Montgomery County, Maryland, which has restricted the use of certain pesticides on lawns, playgrounds, mulched recreational facilities, and childcare facilities; King County, Washington, which has adopted an integrated pest management policy to include guidance directing county agencies to reduce pesticide impacts on public lands and rights-of-way; and the state of Connecticut has enacted restrictions on certain pesticides to reduce avoidable exposure pathways to pollinators, including protections related to pollinator-attractive trees and plants; and

 

Whereas, by implementing organics-first integrated pest management practices, local and county public entities can promote models of land stewardship that encourage the protection of waterways, wetlands, and stormwater infrastructure by ending routine synthetic pesticide use that drives runoff and drift, and by modernizing roadside and public lands management with lower-risk proven alternatives, such as organic applications, native habitat, and targeted controls. Now, therefore,

 

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:

 

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, encourage counties, municipalities, and other political subdivisions of the State, including school districts, to establish the use of organics-first integrated pest management practices and standards that would prioritize the use of prevention-based, least toxic, organic practices and prohibit the use of synthetic pesticides for public land management, including habitat restoration and roadside management.

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