Global Courant
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration proposed on Wednesday to bring back regulations to protect endangered plants and animals, as officials under former President Donald Trump reversed changes that weakened the Endangered Species Act.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would reinstate a decades-old ordinance requiring general protection for species recently listed as endangered.
The General Protection Ordinance was scrapped in 2019 as part of a series of changes to the application of the Species Act that were encouraged by the industry, even as global extinctions accelerate due to habitat loss and other pressures.
Officials would also no longer consider the economic impact when deciding whether animals and plants need protection. And the rules make it easier to designate areas as critical to the survival of a species, even if it no longer exists in those locations.
That could help the recovery of endangered fish and freshwater mussels in the Southeast, where the aquatic species are in many cases absent from parts of their historic range, said Gary Frazer, deputy director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Frazer said Wednesday’s proposal would restore “baseline” protection so species aren’t pushed further toward extinction.
“We have the opportunity to try to improve the status of species before they reach the edge,” he said.
Details on the proposed rules, which could take up to a year to complete, were obtained by The Associated Press before being made public.
They will face strong backlash from Republican lawmakers, who say President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration has stymied oil, gas and coal development and favors conservation over development.
“These proposed rules lead us in the wrong direction and are completely unnecessary given the proven track record of success of private conservationists and state and local land managers,” said Bruce Westerman, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, an Arkansas Republican.
Industry groups have long viewed the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as a hindrance. Under Trump, they successfully lobbied to water down the bill’s provisions as part of a broad dismantling of environmental safeguards. Trump officials have rolled back endangered species regulations and protections for the northern spotted owl, gray wolves and other species.
The spotted owl decision was reversed in 2021 after conservation officials said Trump political appointees used flawed science to justify opening up millions of acres of West Coast forest to potential logging. Protections for wolves across most of the US were reinstated by a federal court last year, and the Biden administration has said it will decide by February whether they should remain in place.
Many of Trump’s changes were finalized during his final weeks in office.
Since then, officials have imposed less restrictive protections on more than a dozen animals and plants compared to what they would have been given, said Jonathan Wood of the Property and Environment Research Center, a free-market policy group based in Bozeman, Montana.
Wood said the changes in the Biden administration could hurt state and private landowners’ efforts to restore species, imposing stricter regulations that undermine incentives to voluntarily work for conservation.
Biden administration officials said they were trying to bring the endangered species law into line with its original intent and purpose.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Martha Williams said in a statement that the changes “reaffirm our commitment to preserving America’s wildlife and making the Endangered Species Act work for both species and people.”
Janet Coit, assistant administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the rules would ensure that the species law remains in effect as climate change alters habitats around the world and plants and animals become extinct.
The Biden administration had previously repealed a 2020 rule restricting which lands and bodies of water could be designated as places where endangered animals and plants could receive federal protection. It also reversed Trump’s decision to weaken enforcement of the age-old Migratory Bird Treaty Act, making it more difficult to prosecute bird deaths caused by the energy industry.
But environmentalists are frustrated that it has taken Biden more than two years to address Trump-era rollbacks. Their urgency is fueled by the prospect of a new Republican administration after the 2024 election that could relax protections again.
“These are promising steps to bring us back to the purpose of the Endangered Species Act, its ability to protect,” Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles said of the new rules. The group sued on behalf of environmental groups to block Trump’s rules and prevailed in U.S. district court, then lost on appeal.
A range of industry groups have long maintained that economic impacts are not adequately considered in U.S. government wildlife decisions. Those groups range from livestock and ranching organizations to trade associations representing oil, gas and mining interests.
The Endangered Species Act has been credited with helping save the bald eagle, California condor, and a host of other animals and plants since President Richard Nixon signed it into law. It currently protects more than 1,600 species in the United States and its territories.
(TagsToTranslate)Endangered Species
