Organics-First Pesticides

2025-2026 Bill 5305: Organics-First Pesticides - South Carolina Legislature Online

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026
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H. 5305
STATUS INFORMATION
House Resolution
Sponsors: Reps. Herbkersman, Alexander, Anderson, Atkinson, Bailey, Ballentine, Bamberg, Bannister, Bauer, Beach, Bernstein, Bowers, Bradley, Brewer, Brittain, Burns, Bustos, Calhoon, Caskey, Chapman, Chumley, Clyburn, Cobb-Hunter, Collins, Cox, Crawford, Cromer, Davis, Dillard, Duncan, Edgerton, Erickson, Ford, Forrest, Frank, Gagnon, Garvin, Gatch, Gibson, Gilliam, Gilliard, Gilreath, Govan, Grant, Guest, Guffey, Haddon, Hager, Hardee, Harris, Hart, Hartnett, Hartz, Hayes, Henderson-Myers, Hewitt, Hiott, Hixon, Holman, Hosey, Howard, Huff, J.E. Johnson, J.L. Johnson, Jones, Jordan, Kilmartin, King, Kirby, Landing, Lastinger, Lawson, Ligon, Long, Lowe, Luck, Magnuson, Martin, McCabe, McCravy, McDaniel, McGinnis, C. Mitchell, D. Mitchell, Montgomery, J. Moore, T. Moore, Morgan, Moss, Neese, B. Newton, W. Newton, Oremus, Pace, Pedalino, Pope, Rankin, Reese, Rivers, Robbins, Rose, Rutherford, Sanders, Schuessler, Scott, Sessions, G.M. Smith, M.M. Smith, Spann-Wilder, Stavrinakis, Taylor, Teeple, Terribile, Vaughan, Waters, Weeks, Wetmore, White, Whitmire, Wickensimer, Williams, Willis, Wooten and Yow
Document Path: LC-0454VR-VR26.docx
Introduced in the House on March 4, 2026
Adopted by the House on March 4, 2026
Summary: Organics-First Pesticides
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

Date

Body

Action Description with journal page number

3/4/2026

House

Introduced and adopted (
House Journal-page 3
)

View the latest
legislative information
at the website
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
03/04/2026

A
house
RESOLUTION

TO ENCOURAGE COUNTIES, MUNICIPALITIES, AND OTHER
POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS OF THE STATE, INCLUDING SCHOOL DISTRICTS, TO ESTABLISH
THE USE OF ORGANICS-FIRST INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND STANDARDS
THAT WOULD PRIORITIZE THE USE OF PREVENTION-BASED, LEAST TOXIC, ORGANIC
PRACTICES AND PROHIBIT THE USE OF SYNTHETIC PESTICIDES FOR PUBLIC LAND
MANAGEMENT, INCLUDING HABITAT RESTORATION AND ROADSIDE MANAGEMENT.

W
hereas, South
Carolina's public lands, parks, roadside corridors, and waterways are shared
community assets. Routine synthetic pesticide and herbicide applications create
avoidable exposure pathways for residents, workers, and wildlife, and increase
stormwater and watershed risks. The use of organic practices can help create
and maintain healthy landscapes and ecosystems while reducing chemical
dependence; and

W
hereas, South Carolina
counties, municipalities, and political subdivisions, including school
districts, have an opportunity to be good stewards of the natural resources
with which the Palmetto State has been blessed by implementing land management
practices that prioritize the use of organics-first integrated pest management
that is a prevention-based, least toxic, organic approach to managing pests and
invasive plants in order to sustain healthier ecosystems and natural habitats across
our communities' public spaces, benefitting public health, flora, and fauna;
and

W
hereas, Coastal South
Carolina research suggests a year-round population of monarch butterflies that relies
on wetlands and Sea Island habitats and the state honey bee population already
faces challenges due to environmental, parasitic, and chemical stressors, both
realities which underscore the importance of pesticide-reduction and habitat
protection on public lands, and local demand is rising for safer parks,
playgrounds, athletic fields, and right-of-way management practices that
protect pollinators and waterways; and

W
hereas, other
jurisdictions have demonstrated the ability to implement and promote workable
pesticide safeguard practices, including Montgomery County, Maryland, which has
restricted the use of certain pesticides on lawns, playgrounds, mulched
recreational facilities, and childcare facilities; King County, Washington,
which has adopted an integrated pest management policy to include guidance
directing county agencies to reduce pesticide impacts on public lands and
rights-of-way; and the state of Connecticut has enacted restrictions on certain
pesticides to reduce avoidable exposure pathways to pollinators, including
protections related to pollinator-attractive trees and plants; and

W
hereas, by
implementing organics-first integrated pest management practices, local and
county public entities can promote models of land stewardship that encourage
the protection of waterways, wetlands, and stormwater infrastructure by ending
routine synthetic pesticide use that drives runoff and drift, and by
modernizing roadside and public lands management with lower-risk proven
alternatives, such as organic applications, native habitat, and targeted
controls. Now, therefore,

B
e it resolved by the
House of Representatives
:

T
hat the members of the
South Carolina
House of Representatives
,
by this resolution, encourage counties, municipalities, and other political
subdivisions of the State, including school districts, to establish the use of
organics-first integrated pest management practices and standards that would prioritize
the use of prevention-based, least toxic, organic practices and prohibit the
use of synthetic pesticides for public land management, including habitat
restoration and roadside management.

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This web page was last updated on March 4, 2026 at 10:58 AM