Trump administration seeks to roll back protections for imperiled species and habitat : NPR

A monarch butterfly feeds on milkweed on July 15, 2025, in Chicago.

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Erin Hooley/AP

BILLINGS, Mont. — President Trump’s administration moved Wednesday to roll back protections for imperiled species and the places where they live, reviving a series of changes to Endangered Species Act regulations from the Republican’s first term that were blocked under former Democratic President Joe Biden.

The proposed changes include eliminating the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “general rule” that automatically protects animals and plants when they are listed as threatened. Instead, government agencies would have to develop species-specific protection rules, a potentially lengthy process.

The administration’s announcement responds to long-standing calls from congressional Republicans and industries, including oil and gas, mining and agriculture, for an overhaul of the Endangered Species Act. Critics say the landmark 1973 environmental law has been applied too broadly, to the detriment of economic growth.

But environmentalists have warned the changes could cause years-long delays in efforts to save species such as the monarch butterfly, the Florida manatee, the California spotted owl and the North American wolverine.

“We would have to wait until these poor animals are almost extinct before we can start protecting them. It’s absurd and heartbreaking,” said Stephanie Kurose of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Scientists and government agencies say extinctions are accelerating globally due to habitat loss and other pressures.

Trump has made oil and gas production a centerpiece of his presidency and has sought to remove environmental regulations that hinder development. Other proposals pending from the administration would revise the definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act and potentially circumvent species protections for logging projects in national forests and on public lands.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement that the administration was restoring the original intent of the Endangered Species Act while respecting “the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our lands and resources.”

“These revisions end years of legal confusion and regulatory overreach, providing certainty to states, tribes, landowners and businesses while ensuring that conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense,” Burgum said in a statement.

Another proposed change tasks officials with analyzing economic impacts when deciding whether habitat is essential to a species’ survival.

The case of a lizard shows the potential results of the propositions

The case of Yarrow’s spiny lizard in the southwest illustrates the potential consequences of the proposals. Rapidly warming temperatures have ravaged a population of lizards in Arizona’s Mule Mountains, pushing the reptiles higher up the mountainsides, toward the highest peaks and perhaps toward extinction.

A petition filed Wednesday calls for protection of the lizard and designation of critical habitat. Supporters say analyzing economic impacts could delay protections. Designating critical habitat could pose another hurdle, as the primary threat to this population of spiny lizards is climate change.

“We believe the species should be listed as endangered. In fact, we are somewhat shocked that it is not already extinct,” said John Wiens, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who co-authored the petition.

The Interior Department was sued over the general protection rule in March by the Property and Environmental Research Center (PERC) and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Both groups argued the rule was illegal and discouraged states and landowners from contributing to species recovery efforts.

A manatee comes to the surface to breathe at Manatee Lagoon, a free attraction operated by Florida Power & Light Company that allows the public to see and learn about the sea cows that congregate in winter in the warm waters of the company’s power plant, in Riviera Beach, Florida, January 10, 2025.

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

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Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Species designated as “threatened” under the rule are automatically eligible for the same protections as those with the more severe designation of “endangered.”

PERC Vice President Jonathan Wood said Wednesday’s proposal was a “necessary course correction.”

“This reform recognizes the illegality of the blanket rule and puts recovery at the heart of the Endangered Species Act,” Wood said.

Proposals would weaken protections, critic says

Kristen Boyles, of the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said the changes undermine protections even more than during Trump’s first term. That includes allowing the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to disregard negative impacts on species if those impacts aren’t regulated by the agencies themselves, Boyles said.

“The Services are required to prevent adverse impacts on species, not ignore them,” she said.

During his first term, Trump officials also rolled back protections for some species, including the northern spotted owl and the gray wolf.

The spotted owl ruling was reversed in 2021 after officials said Trump appointees used flawed science to justify opening millions of acres of West Coast forest to possible logging. Wolf protections across most of the United States were restored by a federal court in 2022.

The Endangered Species Act protects more than 1,600 species in the United States and its territories. It is credited with helping save the bald eagle, California condor and increasing numbers of animals and plants from extinction since Republican President Richard Nixon signed it into law.