The Trump administration proposes Wednesday A rule To redefine what it means to “damage” a protected species under the law of endangered species, a movement that conservationists say it will strip the vulnerable plants and animals of the habitat they need to survive.
The proposal advanced by the Fishing and Wildlife Service of the United States and the National Marine Fishing Service would limit the meaning of taking direct measures to kill or hurt wild or threatened wildlife, eliminating the prohibition of destruction that leads to those purposes. It conforms to the intention of the White House officials to stimulate economic growth by reducing regulations.
If adopted, the change could significantly reduce the scope of the Law on Endangered Species, approved in 1973 under former President Nixon. It would also sink a ruling from the 1995 Supreme Court that exceeded the definition of damage to cover “significant modification or degradation of habitat.”
“What they propose will be fundamental how we have protected the endangered species in this country,” said Noah Greenwald, co -director of endangered species in the center of biological diversity, a conservation group.
According to Greenwald, the previous definition prevented acts such as reducing the stripes of ancient forests in northern California and the northwest of the Pacific, where the Federal was held. North stained owl Nest and perch. Or filling a wetland inhabited by frogs of red legs, the California state amphibian also appears as threatened by the federal government.
Under the proposed meaning, it would take something like the actual shooting of an owl to qualify, he said.
“I think there would be much more space for wooden companies to register their habitat without a group,” he said. Given the owls’ Decline precipitated in recent decades“This power could be the nail in the coffee,” he added.
The concept of damage to the law of endangered species is involved in its prohibition of “taking”, which means “harassing, harassing, harassing, persecuting, hunting, shooting, hurting, killing, climbers or collecting” a species protected by law.
“This makes sense in the light of the well -established and centenary understanding of ‘taking’ as meaning to kill or capture a wild animal,” wrote FWS and NMFS by proposing the review, and added that current regulations “do not coincide, the best, better, better, better, better, better, better, better, better.
Publish the proposal rule in the Federal Registry for Thorsday Triggers a period of 30 -day public comments. Once public comments are analyzed, a final rule could be issued in a matter of months.
If the change is made, Greenwald said his group would challenge him in the Court.
The change in proposition occurs in the midst of a large number of actions of the Trump administration to promote greater development and extraction of resources in public lands, which conservationists believe they will damage wildlife, among other harmful effects.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration ordered the immediate expansion of wood production in the US. Open approximately 112.5 million national forest land acres To the registration.
An order of February of the Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum addressed its staff to Review and possible to alter national monuments As part of an impulse to expand American energy production.
