Trump administration lifts ban on killing, trapping threatened species

The US Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday revoked the "blanket rule," a decades-old policy that extended many protections for endangered species to threatened species, including prohibitions on killing, trapping, or harassing them.

The regulation, which had been in place since 1975, was rescinded as part of the Trump administration's broader effort to reinterpret the 1973 Endangered Species Act, a move critics say could weaken protections for threatened plants and animals.

The agency also issued a separate rule requiring regulators to consider the economic impact of designating areas as "critical habitat" for threatened and endangered species. Previously, such economic considerations were optional.

The Interior Department said the new regulations were intended to "advance President Donald J. Trump's directives to strengthen American energy independence, improve regulatory predictability, and ensure federal actions align with the best reading of the law."

“For too long, the Endangered Species Act has been weaponized to stop almost any new project in America, driving up costs for families, weakening our competitiveness, and undermining our national security,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in the statement.

Environmental groups criticized the changes, arguing they would weaken protections for vulnerable species.

Clay Samford, an attorney at the environmental law firm Earthjustice, called the new rules “bad for imperiled wildlife and for wild land,” arguing that the changes were made “in favor of narrow business interests,” according to The Washington Post.

Samford said the new rule would require officials to consider ranchers' concerns when making decisions, increasing the likelihood that their land would be excluded from critical habitat designations.

Environmental organizations and other outside groups typically petition the agency to review whether a species should be listed under the Endangered Species Act. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, more than 500 species are currently awaiting evaluation for possible listing as threatened or endangered.

Samford also warned that the agency's reduced workforce and new requirements to assess protections on a species-by-species basis are likely to increase the number of pending reviews.