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Stop the Destruction of Habitat That Endangered Wildlife Need to Survive
Final signature count: 221
221 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site
A new federal rule strips away a longstanding wildlife safeguard and leaves vital habitat more vulnerable to logging, mining, drilling, and development.
The Trump administration has finalized a rule that rescinds a key Endangered Species Act regulation used to protect imperiled wildlife from destructive habitat changes. For decades, the federal definition of "harm" recognized significant habitat modification or degradation when it actually killed or injured protected wildlife by disrupting essential behaviors such as breeding, feeding, or sheltering.1
The new rule removes that regulatory definition. The Departments of the Interior and Commerce argue that the previous standard exceeded the text of the Endangered Species Act and placed unnecessary burdens on landowners and businesses.2
Wildlife Cannot Survive Without Habitat
The change could have major consequences for places where threatened and endangered animals live. Reuters reports that the Endangered Species Act affects federal decisions involving oil and gas projects, mining, electric transmission, and other activities on federal lands and waters.3
The Associated Press reports that the narrower approach could allow logging, drilling, mining, and other development in wildlife habitat so long as protected animals are not directly killed or injured.4
Yet animals depend on intact habitat for food, shelter, reproduction, migration, and survival. Destroying a nesting area, feeding ground, wetland, river, forest, or other essential habitat can leave wildlife with nowhere to meet those basic needs.
Decades of Wildlife Protection Are at Stake
The broader definition of harm had been part of federal Endangered Species Act enforcement for decades. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the inclusion of habitat destruction within that definition in 1995.5
The Endangered Species Act has been credited with helping species including bald eagles, California condors, and American alligators recover from severe declines.4 Conservation groups warn that weakening habitat safeguards could expose already vulnerable species to further losses as development reaches the places they depend on.
Hundreds of thousands of public comments opposed eliminating the habitat protection after the rule was proposed. Scientists, tribes, legal experts, and environmental organizations also raised objections.5
Restore Protection for the Places Wildlife Need
The Departments of the Interior and Commerce can act to restore strong Endangered Species Act habitat protections. Federal wildlife policy must recognize a basic biological reality: protected animals cannot survive when the places where they feed, breed, and shelter are destroyed.
Sign the petition and demand that federal officials restore Endangered Species Act habitat protections before more imperiled wildlife lose the places they need to survive.
