Giving Compass' Take:
- Ted Williams reports on how recent changes to the definition of "harm" in the Endangered Species Act put endangered species at risk of further habitat loss.
- How can philanthropy help prevent further harm to the ecosystems on which we all depend?
- Ask a custom question to find other nonprofits focused on conservation.
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By hatching a new definition of the word “harm,” the Trump administration has effectively killed the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
For 50 years, the legal definition of “harm” has included the destruction of habitat that sustains threatened and endangered species. But a new rule, finalized July 14, redefines harm as only physical damage to individuals. So, provided individuals of a listed species are not directly injured or killed by humans, it’s perfectly okay to destroy all habitat required for their survival, thereby rendering them extinct. “Common sense” is how Interior Secretary Doug Burgum describes it.
Wildlife advocacy groups are outraged, saying the rule change “violates the core purpose of the statute and decades of legal precedent” and is “a stake through the heart of the ESA.” Multiple lawsuits to block the rule are underway. Unless they succeed, the new harm rule will go into effect on September 14.
Under its 50-year-old definition of “harm,” the ESA has prevented 99 percent of listed species from going extinct. That’s because federal agencies were legally mandated to protect and restore critical habitat. They didn’t have a choice. If the new harm rule stands, no such mandate will exist.
Under the new definition of harm, it will be legal for developers to build houses and malls on black-footed ferret habitat.
Among the horrific damage to wildlife will be the extinction of arguably America’s most endangered mammal, the black-footed ferret. The salvation of the species, presumed extinct before its rediscovery in 1981, has been one of the ESA’s great success stories.
In 1986, just 18 black-footed ferrets remained on the planet, six of which were kept at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Sybille wildlife research facility. Black-footed ferrets are susceptible to human diseases, so when I visited the facility in March of that year, state veterinarian Tom Thorne and I rinsed our feet in antiseptic solution, showered, climbed into blue jumpsuits, and put on rubber sandals and plastic shower caps.
Read the full article about the Endangered Species Act by Ted Williams at Yale Environment 360.