EPA Launches New E-mail Subscription Feature To Help Pesticide Users With Endangered Species Act Requirements

On September 15, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new e-mail subscription feature, added to its Bulletins Live! Two (BLT) web page, allowing pesticide users and other stakeholders to receive quicker updates from the BLT system. EPA states it developed this feature in direct response to requests from pesticide users who asked for better access to BLT updates. With this feature, whenever Endangered Species Act (ESA) requirements are updated in the BLT system, subscribed pesticide users or stakeholders will receive an e-mail with the latest information.

BLT is a web-based application from EPA that provides geographically specific pesticide use limitations to protect threatened and endangered (listed) species and their critical habitats, as part of EPA’s Endangered Species Protection Program. Pesticide labels, when applicable, direct users to the BLT system for additional, area-specific measures needed to protect listed species and their designated critical habitat. EPA states that because it continually updates the system — including adding and revising Pesticide Use Limitation Areas (PULA) for different geographic areas — a pesticide user might not see restrictions for a product today but could in the future. According to EPA, the new subscription feature will help pesticide users learn about relevant updates in near real time, so they can act quickly and with confidence based on BLT information delivered directly to them.

Users can now go to the system website, click the “Sign up” button underneath “Get Bulletin Live Two updates when new PULAs are added or there are changes to BLT,” and provide the requested information, including name, e-mail address, organization, and role formation, to subscribe. Users can also specify the topics they want to subscribe to, which include the following:

• Information on the regulation of chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), including safety reviews for new and existing chemicals, data gathering efforts, and review of confidential business information claims;

• Information on EPA’s safety review of pesticides, including new product registrations, protecting endangered species, and worker protection requirements; and

• BLT updates.

According to EPA, with this new e-mail subscription feature, subscribers will receive:

• Notifications of major BLT system updates;

• Announcements of new PULAs; and

• Alerts about changes to existing PULAs.

Commentary

This update plays a critical role as EPA implements its broader ESA compliance framework. Over the past few years, EPA has fundamentally overhauled its registration processes by introducing comprehensive, class-specific chemical policies — specifically the final Herbicide Strategy, the final Insecticide Strategy, and the recently introduced draft Fungicide Strategy. Rather than handling restrictions on a product-by-product basis, these frameworks establish broad point systems and mandatory mitigation measures, e.g., windbreaks and buffer zones, to reduce spray drift and runoff. Because these strategies rely heavily on geographically targeted PULA maps, the new real-time e-mail subscription feature serves as a vital bridge. It ensures that busy growers and users can seamlessly track rapidly evolving, legally binding label requirements across all chemical applications without halting their daily operations.

Under the ESA, pesticide applicators must access and search BLT no more than six months prior to the month of the pesticide application, manually select the exact future month in which applicators plan to apply the pesticide, and download a PDF document as a “proof of compliance.” An applicator who pulls a valid bulletin months in advance is protected and not required to check the live database again right before application. Since the BLT is a living system, EPA strongly recommends that applicators check for new or additional directions before applying a pesticide. The e-mail notification system solves this tension; it allows growers to lock in their legal, administrative proof weeks in advance while acting as a real-time safety net. If a critical ecological restriction changes right before a spray date, the e-mail gives the applicator immediate awareness to pivot their practices voluntarily, maximizing environmental protection without forcing them to rerun manually administrative queries every week.