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Rulemaking Claims Habitat Destruction Does Not ‘Harm’ Endangered Species.
Conservation groups today sued the Trump administration over its decision to strip endangered species of protections for the places where they live, a decision that contradicts all scientific and legal understanding of the importance of habitat to America’s most vulnerable plants and animals.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service repealed their regulatory definitions of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), paving the way for the modification or degradation of habitat by extractive industries, even if doing so kills or injures imperiled wildlife. The move is illegal, in part because harming species through habitat destruction is prohibited by the ESA’s statutory language. The regulatory definition repealed by the administration had been on the books for 50 years.
The Trump administration’s rulemaking could immediately impact wildlife including Florida manatees, grizzlies, salmon and steelhead, bird species like rufa red knots, golden-cheeked warblers and northern-spotted owls, Hawaiian monk seals, Canada lynx, and insect pollinators, which allow American farmers to raise crops.
