ACTION TIMELINE

April 4, 2002 – The Center filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to protect the California red-legged frog from 66 toxic pesticides in the Bay Area that had been registered and authorized for use without an assessment of their effects on the frog.

July 24, 2004 – The Center released the 67-page report Silent Spring Revisited: Pesticide Use and Endangered Species.

September 20, 2005 – The court found that the EPA had violated the Endangered Species Act by registering 66 pesticides for use without considering how they might affect the continued existence of the California red-legged frog.

January 23, 2009 – The Center filed a legal motion asking the court to protect the red-legged frog from the 66 pesticides until the EPA's completion of a formal consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the pesticides' effects on the frog.

March 2, 2006 – The Center released a comprehensive, 53-page report detailing the risk toxic pesticides pose to endangered species in the San Francisco Bay Area and the failure of the EPA to regulate pesticides harmful to Bay Area imperiled species. The report, Poisoning Our Imperiled Wildlife: San Francisco Bay Area Endangered Species at Risk From Pesticides, also analyzes the EPA's ongoing refusal to reform pesticide registration and use in accordance with scientific findings.

October 2006 – The Center reached a settlement agreement with the EPA to protect the California red-legged frog from 66 of the most toxic and persistent pesticides authorized for use in California.

May 30, 2007 – The Center sued the EPA for violating the Endangered Species Act by registering and allowing the use of 46 toxic pesticides in habitat for 11 Bay Area endangered species without determining whether the chemicals jeopardize those species' existence.

July 1, 2009 – In response to the Center's 2007 lawsuit, the EPA proposed to formally evaluate the harmful effects of 74 pesticides on 11 endangered and threatened species in the San Francisco Bay over the next five years, as well as to impose interim restrictions on use of those pesticides in and adjacent to endangered species habitat.

November 2010 – The Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan to finally ban endosulfan, a highly toxic pesticide and endocrine disruptor that for decades threatened rare wildlife species and been linked to severe human health problems. The EPA stated that the pesticide would be phased out by 2016 across the United States.

December 15, 2010 – The Center filed a notice of intent to sue the Service and EPA for failing to complete consultations or adopt measures to protect the California red-legged frog from 64 registered pesticides that the EPA had determined are likely to harm the frog.

San Francisco garter snake by J. Maughn/Flickr.