Trump Is Gutting the Endangered Species Act
The memo would limit liability to intentional harm, a shift critics say could weaken habitat safeguards and increase deaths from drilling, mining and farming.
- 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.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Accidental deaths of protected fauna will no longer be considered illegal in the United States, according to a Trump administration memorandum confirmed by the AFP on Thursday.
Trump administration says accidental death of endangered species is legal
Critics of the policy consider it an attack on the Endangered Species Act.
Released by the NGO Center for Biological Diversity, the September 14 note redefines the notion of "take," a legal term that intersects the pursuit, killing or capture of a species. This new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act, the main U.S. Wildlife Protection Act, now excludes the deaths of animals caused indirectly by certain human activities, such as commercial fishing or logging. "A ship accidentally hitting a whale has not "taken"…
Accidental deaths of protected animals will no longer be considered illegal
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