Ian Brickey, ian.brickey@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Trump administration announced it would take unprecedented measures intended to drastically limit the protections of the Endangered Species Act.
In a quiet notice in the Federal Register, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service unveiled a proposal to rescind their longstanding definition of “harm,” a key term in the bedrock environmental law, which makes clear that acts injuring members of listed species via habitat destruction are subject to the law.
Such a move would undo a half century of regulatory precedent, which properly has protected imperiled wildlife and wildlife habitat from activities like industrial development under the ESA. Science demonstrates that habitat loss is the primary driver of species extinction. The United States alone loses a football field’s worth of natural space every 30 seconds to development.
The Trump administration’s move is the latest and most serious attack on the Endangered Species Act since Donald Trump came back into power in January. Trump and Elon Musk have sought to slash departmental budgets, including ESA enforcement, and Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would amend the law beyond recognition. Since coming into force in 1973, the ESA has saved from extinction 99 percent of species granted protections, and Americans regularly back the law as one of the most popular environmental laws on the books.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous released the following statement:
“In Donald Trump’s world, future generations will know bald eagles, blue whales, grizzly bears, and other imperiled species only through photographs. A world with the ESA is a world where those species have a chance to thrive. We will do everything in our power to defend this law and save our wildlife for future generations.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.