Trump’s Endangered Species Act rollback puts California wildlife at risk
Trump administration terminated the rollback The passage of the Endangered Species Act on Friday cleared the way for drilling, mining and other human development in protected wildlife habitats.
The move redefines “harm” under the Endangered Species Act, the landmark conservation law that protects threatened and endangered plants and animals. For years, “harm” meant actions that harm or kill wildlife, as well as actions that destroy protected habitats.
Under the new rule, it is no longer illegal to destroy these habitats.
The decision is in line with the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts. slash edits In the name of economic growth. Complementing the move, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the previous definition of harm “interfered with private property rights” and “turned routine activities into a regulatory trap.”
Environmental groups described the decision as a disaster, saying protected species were on the path to extinction.
This movement appears particularly poised to hit California, the most biodiverse state in the country, with more than 6,700 species spread across mountains, forests, deserts and oceans. roughly 2,300 species Approximately 300 of the species protected by the Endangered Species Act are found in California.
These types include: amphibians such as tiger salamanders and Yosemite frogs; birds such as California condors and northern spotted owls; Fish such as small Kern golden trout and Santa Ana suckers; Insects such as Franklin’s bumblebees and Mission blue butterflies; mammals such as gray wolves and Santa Catalina Island foxes; reptiles such as desert turtles and green sea turtles.
The Endangered Species Act is widely credited with saving the California condor, which was nearly extinct in the 1980s due to a variety of factors, including habitat destruction. Thanks to a recovery program By law, the vulture population has since increased to several hundred. However, according to the new law, logging and human development their death is approaching is now allowed.
The recovery of a handful of species in California under the Endangered Species Act has been promoted as success stories, including southern sea otters, peregrine falcons, humpback whales, bald eagles and green sea turtles.
According to a report In a study from the Center for Biological Diversity, the El Segundo blue butterfly lost 90% of its oceanfront habitat due to LAX construction and beachfront housing projects. The population dropped to about 1,000 butterflies in the 1970s, when it was designated an endangered species. The population has now increased to over 120,000.
In California, the rollback could pave the way for more farming, mining, logging and drilling in areas once off-limits due to the potential for destruction of wildlife habitat. A report from Earthjustice It is estimated that expanded oil drilling in California could threaten five marine species, including humpback whales, sea otters, leatherback sea turtles, marbled turtles and wild salmon.
Many environmental groups plan to file a legal challenge to the decision.
“For the first time, a presidential administration has argued that species protected by the Endangered Species Act should not be safe from habitat changes that destroy places where they live, raise their young, or forage,” Kristen Boyles, an attorney for the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice, said in a statement. “Let’s be clear: There is no support for the Trump administration’s rule; there is no scientific support, there is no legal support, there is no public support. We will see the Trump administration in court.”
Ben Greuel, wildlife campaign manager for the Sierra Club, called the decision “an illegal attempt to open the door for corporate polluters to degrade vital habitat.”
“For more than four decades, the definition of ‘harm’ recognized a simple truth: If you destroy the places wildlife need to survive, you put species on the path to extinction,” Greuel said in a statement.
It’s not the first time Trump has targeted California environmental regulation.
Earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom, along with the governors of Washington and Oregon, an official opposition Addressing the Trump administration’s plans to expand drilling off the Pacific Coast, Newsom said it was leading to the “death of wildlife.” Trump administration in June I ordered a review. The California Coastal Commission claims the state’s “environmental extremism” is hindering spaceport development and offshore oil production.
A day before the Endangered Species Act ruling, the Trump administration signed off on a controversial plan to use an old oil pipeline to pump water from the Mojave Desert to cities. Environmental groups said the plan threatened local wildlife as six pumps would have to be built in desert tortoise habitat.
