The PESTT agreement broken down.


"term "urban rodent control" shall mean actions to
directly control mice, rats, voles, squirrels, chipmunks, gophers, woodchucks,
and groundhogs"

USDA will now consider these animals as urban rodents.

"in a city or town with a population greater than 50,000
inhabitants and the urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a city or
town,"

USDA will no longer control urban rodents in cities with a population of 50k or more AND the suburbs around these urban areas.

" except actions involving: (1) federal agencies;"

USDA will still be able to provide urban rodent control to other federal agencies.

"(2) government entities
engaged in a cooperative service agreement with APHIS to provide direct
control of rodents as of October 1, 2013"

This mean that they will have to cancel any contracts they have in place with government entities prior to October 1st
But they will not be able to renew them. Once they expire.

"3) a state in which direct control of
the rodent species has been expressly authorized by state law, rulemaking, or
a local jurisdiction's ordinance promulgated by public notice and an
opportunity for public comment or as otherwise promulgated as required and
authorized by the respective state or local law; "

If you state passes a specific law that has public comment, allowing/directing USDA to do rodent control they will still be able to do it.

"(4) railways and airport
air sides areas. "

USDA will still be able to do rodent control for railway. But they will not be able to do rodent work on airport property outside of the security fence. ie. terminal and the areas you can go without being frisked by tsa.

"APHIS will refer all requests for operational assistance with
"urban rodent control" from private entities such as home and business
owners and associations to the private sector."

This requires usda to refer all urban rodent work to private companies!

Everyone needs to contact the state director of WS in their state and inform them of this agreement. You also need to start calling them out when they violate this agreement.

Thank you.

beaver is a rodent, but not listed? so can they still do them?

Yes, that may be all well and good but what about BEAVER. For many of us beaver could be our bread and butter, just ask Don Lafountain, and without beaver being stipulated WS continues it's stranglehold on this species. Same applies to urban canines, feral hogs, turkey and deer. On the latter two most of us are restricted from any means other than hazing or exclusion yet WS with their various memorandums of understanding with the various state DNRs are free to use any means up to and including lethal take. Also glaringly absent is any mention of two species that are the bread and butter of the industry BATS and BIRDS.
Cody, it seems to me that you are trying to look at this glass half full and put it in the best light possible. Maybe just getting the USDA to the table in the first place is a start and this is just the first crack in eroding their monopoly but in light of previous MOUs with NPMA and the blatant disregard WS has shown to the MOUs and their own charter I consider it nothing more or less than tossing the cur a bone. JMO but there ain't enough on that bone for more than a taste and the industry will starve on that diet.
I hate to even say it but that agreement is more of a boost to the pest control industry than it is to the wildlife control industry. If other urban areas are experiencing what I am seeing in the Atlanta market then the pest control industry is better positioned to move into what was once ours alone. I am seeing more and more mainline PCOs doing wildlife work but they only seem to want the structural work and not the beaver, canines and other assorted non structural work. The same can be said of many of the larger wildlife control operations as well. So for all us generalists we are still barred from becoming specialists in the areas we would like to.
Personally I can not see how this agreement in any way can benefit me and mine. On the contrary it throws open the door for anyone to play the game in the urban areas and acknowledges a right for WS to operate in these areas in the rural markets. A win win for them by marginalizing pure wildife controllers and putting them at odds with PCOs in the urban centers and directly competing in the countryside.

The fact is teh USDA was prohibited from doing "urban Rodent Control" and now they will be allowed to as they defined it. They excluded BEAVER, NUTRIA, MUSKRATS on purpose not by accident. Get on the phone and demand your senators/representatives to support the original PESTT Act, tell them the Pest Control Association does not speak for the Wildlife Control Industry.

Yes they excluded them out of their definition of urban rodent.
Keep in mind the this is not officiall
If you know USDA is doing beaver work in an urban environment you need to immediately file an oig complaint through your congresman before it is to late.
Pm me and I can walk you through the process

You have some good points warrior I am looking at this as a crack that will keep growing

Everyone needs to file an oig complacent saying USDA is violating thir 1987 authorization by trapping urban rodents.
Call or pm me for details.

I fully support filing complaints against the USDA WS. Yes they have broken the law. When you break the actions of this rogue agency down by each violation they break thousands of laws that private citizens would be fined and or jailed for doing every year nationwide.

Most state laws created by the states have an exemption for the feds and all federal laws give WS exemptions. This alone needs to stop or someday we are all gonna wake up to hearing only our government can do anyhting with wildlife and the looney left will help them including all hunting and trapping.This is deeper then just what happens to an industry. We are just one of many dominoes that need not fall - screw the AR's and WS.

Most of the mission that USDA WS is not even needed and a duplication of an already strong, better informed & trained private wildlife control industry. The USDA WS is just a waste of federal funding and their mission can be fully privatized without any effect on the economy . The missions they perform will still be done and their employees with all of their great government trapping experience the opportunity to compete equally with all of us as sole owners or even large special purpose wildlife control companies.

The federal Gov has no business in the ADC business. USDA WS screws up everything they touch - coyote control, beaver control, pigeon control, etc. etc. etc., If there is a fur, nonfur or nongame species that needs control, let the states control and decide there own problems.

Any association that thinks they represent the private wildlife control industry must realize you do not have the right to take any right of private citizens who want to keep their business's trapping beaver, muskrat, nutria or any wildlife species other then the Chupacabra. Beaver trapping has been a occupation and profit opportunity of the private citizen long before the US Constitution was ever signed. No association has the right to represent and give away the rights of a private citizen to trap beaver to any government agency. Right now we have city people looking out for their own financial interests and they are more then willing to sell out every rural trapper in america today.