Trump Administration Memo Would Limit Core Endangered Species Act Prohibition to Intentional Killing of Wildlife
Internal Fish and Wildlife Service directive would upend central protections that have safeguarded imperiled animals for decades
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new memo from the Trump administration illegally reinterprets the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to mean that only the intentional killing or injury of protected wildlife is prohibited under the Act. The memo would mean that wildlife deaths from activities like shipping, drilling, logging, mining, and other development no longer violate the law.
Following is a statement from Andrew Wetzler, senior vice president for Nature at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“With this memo, the administration is telling every industry in America that killing endangered wildlife is fine as long as it wasn’t their primary goal. But unintentional harm is exactly what is driving many species toward extinction. Whales get hit by ships. Bats lose the trees they roost in. Sea turtles drown in nets. Pesticides drift onto pollinators’ habitats. Limiting the law’s scope to intentional harm, like hunting, would utterly gut ESA protections and put countless species on a path to extinction—all to line the pockets of industry executives.
“For more than fifty years the deal has been simple. If your project might harm a protected animal, it warrants serious scrutiny. Assuming the project won’t push a species to extinction, you plan ahead and get a permit that requires specific measures to minimize damage. Congress wrote the law specifically to limit accidental harm. There is no legal basis to interpret the law otherwise. We’re prepared to fight to ensure the law that keeps endangered animals like bald eagles, grizzly bears and humpback whales on this planet is not transformed into nothing more than a rule against poaching.
“There are about 50 Rice’s whales left. Nobody is intentionally hitting them with ships, but there are many things that should be done to prevent accidents and protect the whale. They can't survive a government that shrugs when one gets run over.”
Background
The Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to "take" a protected animal. The law defines that broadly, covering everything from hunting and trapping to harming or killing. For decades, that ban has applied to all deaths, even when accidental. If an activity is likely to kill or injure endangered wildlife, the actor must seek a permit and take steps to limit the damage. This permitting system demonstrates Congress’s plain intent to otherwise prohibit accidental harm.
This is the second major change to these protections in three months. In July, the administration scrapped the longstanding rule that counted destroying an animal's habitat as a form of harm and, therefore, “take.” The Supreme Court upheld the previous decades-long interpretation in 1995.
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NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).