Relentless Advocacy Archives - Page 3 of 5 - The Edge from the National Association of Landscape Professionals

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Relentless Advocacy

California Judge Bans Commonly Used Pesticides

Last week’s Advocate noted the injunction issued by a federal judge in California that temporarily halted the state from designating the popular herbicide glyphosate as cancer-causing.  This week, a state judge issued a ruling saying the state must stop using a wide variety of pesticides:

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Fireworks at Massachusetts Public Hearing

Last Thursday, NALP was present at a public hearing held by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources as the agency began the process of renewing local electric utility Eversource’s five-year Vegetative Management Plan for rights-of-way maintenance.  [from here link to blog post with the following text:] Under Massachusetts regulations, the public is invited to submit […]

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Seasonal Labor Crisis Looms Large

Last week, many NALP members received devastating news. They were informed by the Department of Labor that they would not receive the H-2B workers they were counting on. This year, due to an unprecedented volume of applications, over 60% of seasonal businesses were unsuccessful in getting workers through the H-2B program. The pending seasonal labor […]

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Pesticide Application Safety Work Group in Washington State

Written by: Heather Hansen of Washington Friends of Farms & Forests  What began as the most onerous anti-pesticide bill before the Washington State Legislature in decades, now creates a work group to study pesticide application safety.  Agricultural organizations in Washington went from opposed to support as the bill was amended.

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EPA Extends Neonic Comment Period

In part, due to pressure from NALP and other industry stakeholders the EPA has granted a 60-day extension to the current neonicotinoid benefits assessment open comment period. Comments must now be submitted by April 21, 2018.  This additional time will allow landscape professionals to more fully respond to the content and approach reflected in the EPA’s […]

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10 Point WOTUS Review

Already this year, there have been several noteworthy developments related to WOTUS and revisions that are being made under the current administration. There are a lot of moving parts and understanding where things stand can get confusing. Recently, NALP consultant David Crow of DCLRS provided a breakdown of where things stand that provides significant clarity […]

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Proposed Regulations Expand Association Health Care Options

Small businesses and self-employed individuals may soon have more options for obtaining affordable group health coverage. As directed by Executive Order 13813, on January 5, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released proposed regulations (83 Fed. Reg. 614) intended to increase the availability of association health plans (AHPs). The proposed regulations would achieve that aim by broadening […]

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Help Us Tell Your H-2B Story!

NALP has secured an important meeting with a senior staff member at the Department of Homeland Security. The meeting is scheduled for early February and will allow us to further illustrate the critical role that H-2B serves in filling the workforce needs of landscape professionals and other seasonal employers and to voice our extreme concerns […]

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Senate Compromise Ends Shutdown

Democratic Senate leaders agreed to end the filibuster that prevented the Senate from voting on a continuing resolution to extend the 2017 budget. The compromise ends the chamber’s stalemate and, extends the current budget to February 8th. In exchange for ending the filibuster Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) promised to bring immigration and DACA bills […]

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Supreme Court Vacates WOTUS Stay

The U.S. Supreme Court unexpectedly struck down the Sixth Circuit Court’s stay on the Obama WOTUS rule. The Court unanimous ruled that challenges to WOTUS must be filed in federal district courts, as opposed to the federal appeals courts. The ruling marked the first opinion of the month. Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered the opinion.

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