More than five million acres of crops, an area roughly the size of New Jersey, have been injured by the herbicide dicamba since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conditionally registered three new formulations for in-crop applications in dicamba-resistant soybeans and cotton in 2016. Damage from this highly mobile herbicide does not stop at the field edge: dicamba drift places tens of millions of acres of wild and ornamental plants—and the wildlife these plants support—at risk. 

This report discusses what’s known about the wider ecological impacts of dicamba and related herbicides to native plant communities and the wildlife they support, and provide a few short-term and long-term recommendations for reducing environmental harm from these volatile herbicides.

Written and published in partnership with National Wildlife Federation and Prairie Rivers Network.