Conservation groups are notifying the Trump administration of their plans to challenge two rules weakening the Endangered Species Act, or ESA, that were finalized Tuesday.
“Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has launched a barrage against endangered species across the country,” Elizabeth Forsyth, Earthjustice senior attorney, said in a statement. “These latest attacks, which strip threatened species of protections and prioritize industry interests over science, will further risk sending our imperiled plants and animals toward extinction.”
Forsyth said the attacks on the ESA are foolhardy and illegal, and the Trump administration will be hearing from conservation groups in court.
One of the new rules deprives newly listed threatened animal and plant species from automatically receiving protections from killing, trapping, and other forms of prohibited “take” under the ESA. This applies to species awaiting a “threatened” designation, including the Florida manatee, Pygmy rabbit, Aztec Gilia, and Clover’s Cactus.
She said species the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists as threatened could now be left unprotected for years.
The other rule gives too much weight to “economic considerations” when the federal government decides whether to protect endangered species and critical habitat, Forsyth said. Green sea turtles, Monarch butterflies, polar bears, sage-grouse, and Texas hornshells, and the ‘iʻiwi bird are among animal and plant species across the United States that could be impacted.
The two rules follow another rule – the first of the Trump administration’s attacks on the ESA – which could open the door to widespread destruction of habitat for endangered wildlife, she said. That rule reverses a 50-year understanding that the ESA protects endangered wildlife from habitat destruction, and it’s already being challenged in court.
For the rule depriving newly listed threatened species, Earthjustice filed a notice of intent to sue on behalf of Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Conservation Council of Hawai‘i, WildEarth Guardians, and Humane World for Animals.
For the rule giving outsize weight to “economic considerations,” Earthjustice filed a notice of intent to sue on behalf of Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, Defenders of Wildlife, National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, and WildEarth Guardians.
More attacks on the ESA are expected this fall, Forsyth said.
She said Trump administration has sought to erode the ESA in other ways as well, by illegally exempting all oil-and-gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico from having to comply with the law, an action that has the potential to wipe out two dozen marine species including whales and sea turtles. And last week, the Trump administration announced moves that could lead to the killing of grizzlies across the U.S.
In addition, Forsyth said as the Trump administration has weakened the ESA, it has also fired the federal workers responsible for protecting endangered species and managing ecosystems across the country.
She said these attacks on a law that has saved 99 percent of species under its protection from going extinct – including bald eagles, American bison, and humpback whales – are politically unpopular: more than four out of five Americans support the ESA.
“The Trump administration is attempting to reshape the Endangered Species Act to make its protections for America’s most vulnerable wildlife weaker and harder to secure,” said Ben Greuel, national wildlife campaign manager at the Sierra Club. “These recent changes aim to leave vulnerable species exposed to greater threats and make it more difficult to protect the habitat essential to their survival and recovery.”
