ESA Overhaul

 

Reactions & Legal Challenges

 

Democrats React To 'Slap In The Face' After Changes To Endangered Species Protections. According to USA Today, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement that House Democrats will work against climate change. ‘This latest disastrous decision deals a devastating blow to our natural inheritance and shamefully abandons our moral responsibility to be good stewards of our planet and its precious resources, all to help out big corporations and polluters,’ she said. The administration’s decision is ‘a slap in the face to those fighting to address the climate crisis,’ said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in a statement. Schumer tweeted Monday, ‘Once again, the Trump administration is prioritizing profits for big oil ahead of the health & safety of our planet & future generations.’ Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., noted that the Endangered Species Act was passed with bipartisan support under Republican President Richard Nixon. ‘The Endangered Species Act is one of America’s most powerful success stories. … It serves as a model for what we can accomplish when Washington sets aside political differences and works together for the good of our country,’ he wrote in a statement.” [USA Today, 8/14/19 (=)]

 

Conservation Groups Plan Legal Challenge Over Endangered Species Act. According to KVOA-TV, “From the Jaguar to the Mexican Gray Wolf, right now there are more than sixty endangered species living in Arizona. Randy Serraglio says he’s worried about everyone of them. ‘Well we weren’t surprised, the Trump administration has never seen an environmental law that it likes or a handout to industry that it doesn’t like,’ said Serraglio. On Monday the Trump administration proposed a series of changes to the decades old Endangered Species Act. The changes would allow officials to attach a cost to saving a particular plant or animal and disregard the potential impact of climate change. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says the changes will be a step forward. ‘As someone who has worked with the implementation of the act for over two and a half decades, I do believe these changes will reduce needless conflict that has neither improved the situation on the ground or the cause of lasting species recovery,’ said Bernhardt.” [KVOA-TV, 8/13/19 (=)]

 

'I'm Scared': Wildlife Expert Sounds Alarm On Endangered Species Act Changes. According to WTVJ-TV, “A day after the Trump administration finalized changes to the Endangered Species Act, a South Florida wildlife expert is sounding the alarm, claiming the revisions are driven by economic greed and will hurt species. ‘It may mean economic dollars for certain people,’ said Ron Magill of Zoo Miami. ‘But at the end of the day it could mean the demise of a species that is an incredible part of the link in the chain of healthy life for all of us. The bottom line is this, if you lose a species all the money in the world is not going to buy it back.’ On Monday, the Department of U.S. Interior announced an end on blanket protections for newly listed species, allowing governments to put an economic cost on saving a species and weakening initial protections given to animals on the ‘threatened’ list. Previously, economic cost could not be a factor in deciding whether to protect animals. Republican lawmakers said this will improve efficiency of oversight while still protecting endangered plants and animals.” [WTVJ-TV, 8/13/19 (=)]

 

Salmon Advocates Slam Trump Rules Slashing Endangered Species Act Protections. According to KVOA-TV, “‘Here in California we’re likely to see salmon, sturgeon, steelhead trout, wolves, wolverines, kit fox and many others all slide towards extinction as a result of today’s action by the Trump White House,’ said John McManus, Executive Director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association. The Trump administration announced Monday that it finalizing new rules to slash protections for endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, one of the nation’s landmark environmental laws, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973. The new rules make it easier to remove a species such as the Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon from the endangered species list and weaken protections for ‘threatened’ species such as Central Valley steelhead. The ESA defines a threatened species as ‘any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.’” [KVOA-TV, 8/13/19 (=)]

 

Why Republicans Say The Endangered Species Act Hurts Business. According to Fox Business, “Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt revealed revised regulations for the Endangered Species Act this week, which Republicans say will improve business in areas hampered by the restrictions and which critics say will harm wildlife at a critical time. ‘The revisions finalized with this rulemaking fit squarely within the President’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals,’ Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement. ‘These changes were subject to a robust, transparent public process, during which we received significant public input that helped us finalize these rules.’ According to the Interior, the amendments to the act clarify the standards required for listing and reclassifying species, as well as designating a critical habitat. The department says the changes will make the ESA consultations with federal agencies more efficient and will establish deadlines for applications ‘without compromising conservation.’ ‘The Endangered Species Act exists to identify struggling species and help them recover. Unfortunately, current implementation is drawn out and ineffective,’ Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said. ‘[These] actions will help achieve actual species recovery while providing much-needed clarity and stability to those who are too often held hostage by the ESA.’” [Fox Business, 8/13/19 (-)]

 

Impacts & General Coverage

 

Trump Rewrite Of Endangered Species Rule Could Threaten Monarch Butterflies, Environmental Group Warns. According to The Hill, “The Trump administration’s changes to the Endangered Species Act could threaten efforts to preserve the monarch butterfly and other struggling species that haven’t yet been officially labeled ‘endangered,’ experts and advocates say. Critics told The Associated Press and the BBC that the changes to the decades-old policy announced Monday by the Trump administration could affect conservation efforts involving the butterfly, which migrates annually between Mexico and Canada. Along with a new provision that allows the administration to assign costs to preserving individual species, the changes end blanket policies protecting all species designated as ‘threatened’ in favor of individual plans for each species developed on a case-by-case basis. Other changes also force the federal government to deal with threats to species only in the ‘foreseeable’ future, a change which some argue eliminates climate change as a factor that agencies can consider. The monarch, considered threatened by many scientists, is currently under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine its designation under the act. A decision in the matter is expected before the end of 2020.” [The Hill, 8/13/19 (=)]

 

Hawaiʻi May Be Impacted By Changes To Endangered Species Act. According to Hawai’i Public Radio, “Hawaiʻi’s threatened plants and animals may be impacted by the new changes to federal wildlife conservation rules. The Department of Interior announced this week a list of revisions to the Endangered Species Act. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says the changes will help conservation efforts, and increase transparency about the law. Officials say these changes will only apply to future listing decisions. But critics say there are several troubling aspects to the revisions. Especially since a recent report from the United Nations found as many as a million species are at risk of extinction - many within decades. One of the revisions would lessen the protections for species that are threatened, which is a step before they’re considered endangered. ‘Those species that are threatened often are in a better position to benefit from protective measures,’ says Sam Gon, Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for The Nature Conservancy’s Hawaiʻi Chapter. Another change that is receiving a lot of criticism is economic considerations being implemented for the listing process. Conservationists fear the needs of businesses and corporations may outweigh the biological needs of endangered or threatened species.” [Hawai’i Public Radio, 8/13/19 (=)]

 

Weakening The Endangered Species Act Could Harm Humans, Too. According to The Verge, “The changes make it harder to argue that climate change poses a risk to a species’ survival, which is particularly alarming given a recent United Nations report that found that up to a million species face extinction thanks to human activity including burning fossil fuels. Another change weakens protections for species listed as threatened — the step below endangered — in the future. Currently, all threatened species have most of the same protections as endangered species under the law. But soon, protections for each threatened species listed in the future could instead be assessed on a case-by-case basis. On top of that, regulators can now consider how much it might cost to protect a species as decisions are made on which will make the list.” [The Verge, 8/13/19 (+)]

 

New Endangered Species Policy Will Protect Both Property Rights And Rare Frogs. According to Reason, “Over the past decade, a shy frog has been involved in one of the most high-profile legal cases involving an endangered species. On Monday, after more than a year of weighing proposals and public comments, the Department of the Interior unveiled several changes to the way it implements the Endangered Species Act. In July, an eight-year legal saga involving the dusky gopher frog came to a close when the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to remove the property of Edward Poitevent, a Louisiana landowner, from its ‘critical habitat designation’ for the species. The designation delineates areas that are important for the recovery of a species, but often comes with burdensome land-use restrictions. In 2011, the government included about 1,500 acres of Poitevent’s property because the land encompasses several rare ponds conducive to the frog’s breeding needs. Yet the government admitted ‘the surrounding uplands are poor-quality terrestrial habitat for dusky gopher frogs’ because they lack the particular timber ecosystem the amphibian requires. Moreover, the frog has not been documented in the state for half a century—the surviving population, which numbers about 150, is in southern Mississippi.” [Reason, 8/13/19 (+)]

 

Here Are Some Of The USA’s Most Endangered Species. According to USA Today, “The Trump administration announced a major overhaul Monday to the Endangered Species Act that it said would reduce regulations. Environmentalists said the changes would push more animals and plants to extinction because of threats from climate change and human activities. The changes end blanket protections for animals newly deemed threatened and allow federal authorities for the first time to take into account the economic cost of protecting a particular species. With the Endangered Species Act in the news, here are a few of the USA’s most endangered or threatened species: Florida panther … Lesser prairie chicken … Devil’s Hole pupfish … Bryde’s whale … North Atlantic right whale … Monarch butterfly … Delta” [USA Today, 8/13/19 (+)]

 

Trump Declares Open Season On Endangered Species. According to Vanity Fair, “On Monday the people who brought you ‘another Deepwater Horizon spill would be great’ announced that it will be gutting the Endangered Species Act, the landmark conservation legislation signed into law by Richard ‘This Trump Guy’s Been Great for My Image’ Nixon. The new rules, expected to be published in the Federal Register this week and to go into effect 30 days after that, will weaken protections for species classified as ‘threatened,’ make it easier to remove a species from the endangered list, and make it significantly more difficult to consider the impact of climate change on wildlife when determining if a certain species warrants protection, by changing how far into the future the department will look to determine the possibility of a species becoming threatened or extinct. They will ‘allow economic assessments to be conducted when making determinations,’ so that industries like mining and oil and gas can claim that protecting a certain species or its habitat would hurt their operations. (Presumably it would also allow two hunting aficionados to be able to argue that they’d suffer monetary harm should federal protections prevent them from killing off an entire ecosystem to make way for another golf course.)” [Vanity Fair, 8/12/19 (+)]

 

Opinion Pieces

 

Op-Ed: The New Threat To Endangered Species. According to The New York Times, “Unable to kill or neuter the act legislatively because of strong support for the law even in the Republican-held Congress of the first two years of his presidency, Mr. Trump now is eviscerating it by gutting regulations that make it effective. Perhaps most crucially, the rule diminishes ‘critical habitat’ protections, like those for areas formerly occupied by now-endangered species, though such habitat is the only hope many depleted species have for eventual recovery. The rule is intended to impede the listing process and ignore declining habitat viability caused by climate change. And for the first time, a tally of financial considerations will accompany discussions on the fate of species. A release from the Interior Department about the new rules was accompanied by endorsements from 15 Republican lawmakers and officials from the National Association of Home Builders, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Public Lands Council representing cattle and sheep producers and the Western Energy Alliance, a group of oil and gas producers. There was no mention of the many excoriating statements issued by environmental groups. It used to be that animals did not need us. Now they do. Unless we value their existence, the modern tide will engulf and obliterate them. Their survival -- like our great-grandchildren’s -- is a moral matter. No religion has ever preached that our role on earth is to destroy, or to leave less for those who’ll come after us. No wisdom tradition teaches that it’s O.K. for a generation to drive the world toward ruin. We are taught instead that we must safely pilot the ark.” [The New York Times, 8/13/19 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: From The Meadowlands To The Badlands, The Endangered Species Act Is Now Endangered. According to North Jersey Bergen Record, “Capt. Bill Sheehan, the Hackensack riverkeeper, has seen firsthand the effects of forward-thinking conservation policies such as the Endangered Species Act, from the time when he was growing up in the Meadowlands. He recalls then rarely seeing a bald eagle, America’s symbol, except when one might fly by heading elsewhere. Now, Sheehan told me Monday, there are at least two breeding bald eagle nests in the Meadowlands, including an unlikely pair of eagles at Kearny Point. Indeed, there are, the riverkeeper says, ‘as many as 10 eagles’ nests and 20 osprey nests in our neighborhood.’ No doubt, the bald eagle is a resilient specimen, one reason it remains part of our national seal, and why its image is still part of our coins and institutions. It was once our universal symbol of strength, pride and endurance. Now, if President Donald Trump and his cronies have their way, it could become one more symbol of our national disgrace.” [North Jersey Bergen Record, 8/13/19 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: 3 Ways Trump’s New Regulations Will Better Protect Endangered Species. According to The Daily Signal, “The Trump administration has just taken an important step in the effort to protect threatened and endangered species. On Monday, the administration published final regulations that will improve implementation of the Endangered Species Act. This law simply hasn’t worked. Over the law’s more than 45 years, only about 3% of the species listed as threatened or endangered have been removed from the list due to recovery. To their credit, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service decided to take action. They recognized that a significant part of the problem is connected to how they have implemented the law. Here are three of their important changes. 1. No longer treating threatened species as if they were endangered. … 2. Promoting much-needed transparency. … 3. Stopping critical habitat designations that don’t help to conserve species.” [The Daily Signal, 8/13/19 (-)]

 

Wildlife & Conservation

 

AP | Federal-State Roadkill Study Targets Major Migration Route. According to E&E News, “The Forest Service says $25,000 is being used for a federal-state project in eastern Idaho to identify road-killed animals in a major wildlife migration corridor to determine collision hot spots and potential locations for wildlife crossing structures. The agency says 75% of historical migration routes for elk, bison and pronghorn have been lost in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Fremont County in Idaho has many of the remaining migration routes but a high rate of wildlife-vehicle collisions. The project started earlier this summer and uses volunteers to identify dead animals on U.S. Highway 20 and State Highway 87. Officials say the information can help the Idaho Transportation Department better understand wildlife-road conflicts through the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Fremont County residents in a nonbinding advisory vote last year voiced opposition to structures to keep wildlife off roadways, citing potential harm to property values.” [E&E News, 8/13/19 (=)]

 

 

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