BILLINGS, Mont. — The Trump administration moved Wednesday to weaken protections for imperiled species and their habitats by reviving a package of Endangered Species Act regulation changes from his first term that were blocked under President Biden.
The proposal would eliminate the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “blanket rule,” which automatically extended the same protections to animals and plants listed as “threatened” that apply to those listed as “endangered.” Instead, agencies would have to develop species-specific rules, a process that could take considerable time.
The administration said the revisions respond to long-standing Republican and industry calls — from oil and gas, mining and agriculture — to limit what they view as excessive use of the 1973 law, which critics say has sometimes hindered economic activity. Environmental groups warned the changes could delay or dilute protections for species such as 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 warn extinctions are accelerating worldwide because of habitat loss and other pressures.
The administration has prioritized increased oil and gas production and rolling back environmental rules that affect development. Other proposed changes 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 species protections.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the changes restore the law’s “original intent” while also considering “the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our land and resources,” adding the revisions will “deliver certainty to states, tribes, landowners and businesses while ensuring conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense.”
One proposed requirement would direct officials to analyze economic impacts when deciding whether an area should be designated as critical habitat, a move advocates say could further slow protections.
The plight of the Yarrow’s spiny lizard in Arizona’s Mule Mountains illustrates possible outcomes. Warming temperatures have pushed the lizard higher up slopes toward peak elevations and possible extinction. A petition filed Wednesday seeks protections and a critical habitat designation. Advocates say economic analyses and debates over habitat could delay action, and climate change as the primary threat complicates habitat designation.
“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, which 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 in Trump’s first term. Kristen Boyles said the proposals include allowing the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to discount impacts on species if those harms are not 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 it into law.
