The Trump Administration has proposed to dramatically weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Since 1973, the ESA has succeeded in preventing the extinction of 99 percent of fish, plant, and wildlife species listed, and benefited countless others that depend on the habitats the law has helped protect.
Despite the Endangered Species Act’s successful track record preventing extinction and its widespread popularity (PDF), the Interior and Commerce Departments have proposed rule changes that would gut the law as we know it.
The proposed changes would:
- Make it difficult to extend protections to threatened species by creating extraneous bureaucratic hurdles.
- Require economic factors be considered when deciding whether to list a species, distracting from the law’s reliance on scientific evidence.
- Make it harder to designate critical habitat, a crucial tool for protecting and restoring species.
- Essentially exempt climate change as a factor when considering whether to list a species.
The Departments are accepting public comments on these disastrous rules until September 24 (Dockets FWS-HQ-ES-2018-0009, FWS-HQ-ES-2018-0006, and FWS-HQ-ES-2018-0007).
If you’d like to submit a comment, you can use our form below. The Federal eRulemaking Portal is notoriously hard to navigate and can be unreliable. Maine Audubon will deliver hard copies of all comments submitted through our form to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in accordance with federal rule.
You may use our suggested text (below the comment field) — but remember that personalizing your comments will help maximize their impact.
Thank you for urging the Trump Administration to leave the Endangered Species Act alone.
