Endangered Species Act – Action Alert

On November 19, the Department of the Interior issued four harmful proposals to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) aimed at dissolving vital protections for imperiled animals, plants, and landscapes that serve as critical habitat.

The ESA has been under attack all year—in April, federal officials proposed redefining the word “harm” to no longer include habitat destruction, and recently they fired key U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees tasked with protecting endangered species.

Now, four new ESA proposals seek to eliminate automatic protection for species classified as threatened, narrow the definition of “critical habitat” for species recovery, make it easier for development and extraction projects to supersede conservation needs on critical habitat, and make it harder to protect species from threats likely to develop in the future.

Habitat loss is the greatest threat to wildlife, and weakening the ESA directly impacts redwood ecosystems. Thousands of animal and plant species call these forests home, including the endangered northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet. This biodiversity has contributed to the designation of many redwood landscapes as protected areas. If the ESA’s strict regulations are dismantled, the future protection of more redwood areas will be jeopardized. It will also be easier for developers to potentially degrade redwood forests on their property.