The National Tribal Environmental Council (NTEC) recently assumed the role of Administrator for the Tribal Pesticide Program Council (TPPC), the second such administrator in 10 years.
The TPPC, whose membership includes representatives of federally-recognized Indian tribes and intertribal organizations, is a tribal technical resource, program, and policy development dialogue group that focuses on pesticide issues and concerns. Established in 1999 partly as a means to provide a pesticides venue for Indian tribes comparable to the venue provided for states through the State FIFRA Issues Research and Evaluation Group (SFIREG), the Committee has engaged in some of the following activities:
- Assisted Indian tribes in developing their own pesticide programs;
- Provided pesticide education, training and research;
- Facilitated communication between Indian tribes, tribal and intertribal organizations, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on pesticides and pesticide-related issues;
- Worked in partnership with the EPA to ensure that the federal law governing pesticides is complied with and enforced in Indian country in a manner that enhances and does not offend Indian tribes’ sovereignty or treaty rights; and
- Helped to ensure that knowledgeable and experienced tribal representatives are aware of and able to participate where their knowledge and expertise are needed in pesticide-relation decision-making.
The former Administrator, Lillian Wilmore, retired after having served admirably in her position for more than 10 years. In advance of Lillian’s retirement, the EPA issued a request for proposal for a new administrator to which NTEC responded in early June of last year. Our organization was subsequently recommended as the next Administrator through 2014 by relevant EPA staff in October with the paperwork ultimately finalized in January of this year.
Upon becoming the TPPC Administrator, NTEC immediately started planning the TPPC’s biannual meeting that was held in the Washington, DC area during the week of March 15th, and also developed a website for the group that can be found at www.tppconline.org.
The biannual meeting actually consisted of two meetings – a one day meeting consisting of the TPPC Executive Committee (EC) and a two-day meeting consisting of the full Council. As for the TPPC EC meeting, members spent the morning focusing on tribal pesticide budget planning specific to the EPA, and revisiting the TPPC Rules and Procedures which will likely see some changes to bring them up to date. As for the afternoon, the TPPC EC spent its time doing planning and setting priorities for 2010, with the priorities established as:
- Better input into EPA regulations as they are being developed;
- More active engagement in the multiyear EPA budget process; and
- Greater assurance that the TPPC is an advocate for tribal pesticide issues.
As for the full Council meeting, a new approach was taken that called for less “talking head” presentations and more engagement among the TPPC members and also with the EPA. Early in the meeting, TPPC members participated in a roundtable discussion with the intent of learning about the “hot issues” facing Indian tribes across the nation. This proved to be productive in allowing members to get a better sense of what’s affecting their colleagues and also provided them an opportunity to offer solutions to problems in some cases. In addition, time was specifically made available at the end of each EPA discussion topic to allow TPPC members to ask questions and have their concerns addressed by Agency staff.
With respect to the new TPPC website, an extended demonstration was provided for TPPC members during the full Council meeting which led to some good feedback. Among other things, the website, which is the first of its kind for the TPPC, will act as a clearinghouse for tribal pesticide issues and also serve as a forum for tribal representatives to communicate on such issues. Based on further input by TPPC members, NTEC expects that the role of the website could expand.
The next in-person TPPC meeting will likely take place in October with a place yet to be determined. During the interim, the TPPC EC will continue to meet monthly over conference calls. In addition, NTEC has initiated a regular monthly call with the EPA for which the Agency will discuss matters of importance to the TPPC and other tribal pesticide representatives, with such matters including forthcoming rules, regulations and guidance documents. Information about these meetings will also be made available on the TPPC website.
The following is a breakdown of the TPPC EC (through October 2011) which is led by its Chair, Fred Corey of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, and Vice Chair, Marco Guske of the Yakama Nation:
Region 1: Fred Corey, Aroostook Band of Micmacs
Region 2: Open for now
Region 3: No federally-recognized Indian tribes for now
Region 4: Open for now
Region 5: Tom Pietila, Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
Region 6: Open for now
Region 7: Darlene Bluebird, Santee Sioux Nation (Primary)
Sharon Bosse, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (Alternate)
Region 8: Irving Provost, Oglala Sioux Tribe (Primary)
Delbert Longbrake, Region 8 Circuit Rider, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (Alternate)
Region 9: Hector Duran, Colorado River Indian Tribes (Primary)
Barkley Root, Cocopah Indian Tribe (Alternate)
Region 10: Eric Gjevre, Region 10 Circuit Rider, Coeur d’Alene Tribe (Primary)
Marco Guske, Yakama Nation (Alternate)
Diania Caudell, At Large, California Indian Basketweavers
Association (Primary)
Carmenlita Chief, Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (Primary)
Mark Aaron, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Tribe (Alternate)
Roman Orona, Ak-Chin Indian Community (Alternate)
For NTEC, Bob Gruenig ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) serves as the TPPC Director and Ken Cronin ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) serves as its Budget Analyst/Webmaster. If you should have any questions concerning the TPPC, please feel free to contact either of these individuals.