Trump admin makes major cut to endangered species protections
The memo would exempt accidental wildlife deaths from liability and narrow protections for 495 endangered U.S. species, officials and advocates said.
- On Sept. 14, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik signed an internal memo interpreting the Endangered Species Act to prohibit only intentional killing or wounding of protected animals.
- The administration's directive relies on a 1995 Supreme Court dissent by Justice Antonin Scalia, narrowing the legal definition of 'take' to exclude incidental harm from economic activity.
- Harvard University law professor Andrew Mergen, who previously supervised ESA litigation at the U.S. Department of Justice, called the memo "an assault on the act like we've never seen before."
- Democratic U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and Sheldon Whitehouse introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution last month to repeal the policy.
- The directive follows the administration's July move rescinding the regulatory definition of 'harm,' which prompted States to sue and former wildlife officials from both parties to urge reversal.
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Lietuvos Radijas ir Televizija
lrytas.ltUS President Donald Trump's administration has decided that the unintentional killing of protected wildlife will no longer be considered illegal, a decision that has drawn sharp criticism because it fundamentally weakens protections for endangered species.
Trump administration allows inadvertent killing of endangered species – WTOP News
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Inadvertently killing endangered animals while logging a forest or building a dam would no longer be considered illegal under a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act by federal officials, marking a sea change by President Donald Trump’s administration in how the landmark environmental law is enforced. A directive sent to...
Trump administration allows inadvertent killing of endangered species
Inadvertently killing endangered animals while logging a forest or building a dam would no longer be considered illegal under a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act by federal officials, marking a sea change by President Donald Trump’s administration in how the landmark environmental law is enforced.
Observador
Environmental protection organizations criticize changes because they change the balance established between economic activity and the necessary protection of wildlife, leading some species to the brink of extinction.
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