More than 150,000 people are calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to fully restore the Endangered Species Act (ESA), following proposed regulations that resulted from federal lawsuits challenging harmful regulations put in place under the Trump administration in 2019.
The Biden administration’s proposed rules, released in June, would reverse some of the lasting damage done to ESA implementation by the Trump rules. But they would also fall short of fully restoring the Act. For example, the Services failed to fully repair section 7 of the ESA, which governs how federal agencies ensure that their actions do not cause imperiled species to go extinct or destroy protected habitat. They also failed to reverse Trump’s damaging changes in section 4 that allow plants and animals to be prematurely delisted, among other shortcomings.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of people who weighed in during the public comment period, 124 environmental organizations today submitted joint comments, including a detailed comment letter outlining all of the changes to the draft regulations that the Services still needs to make to fully restore the ESA.
The Act, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in December, has had a remarkable track record of saving species from extinction and keeping vital ecosystems intact. But unless the ESA is fully restored, our ability to mitigate the biodiversity crisis could be significantly hindered.