BILLINGS, Mont. — The Trump administration on Wednesday moved to weaken safeguards for threatened species and their habitats by reviving a set of Endangered Species Act regulatory changes from its first term that were blocked under President Biden.
The proposal would eliminate the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “blanket rule,” which automatically applied the same protections to plants and animals listed as “threatened” that apply to those listed as “endangered.” Under the new plan, agencies would need to write species-specific rules for threatened listings — a process that can take substantial time and could delay protections.
Administration officials said the revisions respond to long-standing calls from Republicans and industries such as oil and gas, mining and agriculture, who argue the 1973 law is sometimes applied in ways that unduly restrict economic activity. Environmental groups warned the changes could slow or weaken protection for species including the monarch butterfly, Florida manatee, California spotted owl and North American wolverine.
“We would have to wait until these poor animals are almost extinct before we can start protecting them. That’s absurd and heartbreaking,” said Stephanie Kurose of the Center for Biological Diversity. Scientists and agencies have warned that extinctions are accelerating worldwide because of habitat loss and other pressures.
The administration, which has prioritized boosting fossil fuel production and loosening environmental regulations tied to development, proposes other changes as well. One would alter the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act and could allow some logging and other projects on national forests and public lands to proceed without triggering the same species protections. Another would require officials to analyze economic impacts when deciding whether to designate critical habitat — a step advocates say would further slow designations.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum defended the revisions, saying they restore the law’s “original intent” while balancing “the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our land and resources.” He added that the changes will “deliver certainty to states, tribes, landowners and businesses while ensuring conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense.”
The possible consequences are illustrated by the plight of Yarrow’s spiny lizard in Arizona’s Mule Mountains. Warming temperatures have driven the lizard to higher elevations, pushing it toward local extinction. A petition filed Wednesday seeks protections and a critical habitat designation for the species. Advocates warn that adding economic analyses and prolonged habitat debates could delay decisions, and that climate change as the main threat makes defining habitat especially difficult.
“We think that the species should be listed as endangered. In fact, we are somewhat shocked that it is not already extinct,” said John Wiens, a University of Arizona ecology professor and co-author of the petition.
The Interior Department was sued in March over the blanket-protection rule by the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. They argued the rule was unlawful and discouraged state and landowner participation in recovery efforts. PERC Vice President Jonathan Wood called Wednesday’s proposal a “necessary course correction” that “acknowledges the blanket rule’s unlawfulness and puts recovery back at the heart of the Endangered Species Act.”
Environmental law firm Earthjustice warned the changes would undermine protections more broadly than the previous administration’s rollbacks. Kristen Boyles said the proposals would allow the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to discount harms to species if those harms aren’t directly regulated by the agencies. “The Services are required to prevent harmful consequences to species, not ignore them,” she said.
During Trump’s first term, officials rolled back protections for species including the northern spotted owl and gray wolf. The spotted owl rollback was reversed in 2021 after officials acknowledged flawed science had been used to justify opening millions of acres of West Coast forest to potential logging. Protections for wolves were largely restored by a federal court in 2022.
The Endangered Species Act currently protects more than 1,600 species in the U.S. and its territories and is credited with helping save the bald eagle, California condor and many other animals and plants since President Richard Nixon signed the law into effect in 1973.