• Posted April 17, 2025

New Endangered Species Rule Would No Longer Count Habitat Loss as 'Harm'

THURSDAY, April 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The Trump administration is proposing a major change to the Endangered Species Act that would no longer deem habitat destruction a harm to at-risk animals and plants.

Federal officials say this change would reduce an unnecessary regulatory burden, while scientists and conservation groups warn it could threaten endangered species across the U.S., The Washington Post reported.

The new rule would change how "harm" is defined under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Harm now includes damaging the places where species live. Under the new rule, only actions that directly hurt or kill an animal — such as hunting or trapping — would count.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the proposed rule Wednesday.

Officials said this reflects “the single, best meaning” of the Endangered Species Act and “makes sense in light of the well established, centuries-old understanding," The Post said.

Environmental groups say the move could allow more logging, drilling and construction in areas that species need to survive.

“It upends how we've been protecting endangered species for the last 40 years,” Noah Greenwald of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, said.

In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the broader definition of harm when it blocked logging in forests that were home to the northern spotted owl and red-cockaded woodpeckers. 

Experts fear that changing this definition now could remove protections for species like prairie chickens, owls, lynx, panthers and turtles.

Kristen Boyles, an attorney with the environmental law organization Earthjustice, said the idea that destroying habitat doesn’t count as harm is "nonsensical both legally and biologically."

“What they're saying is, it would be okay for a developer to drain a pond where an endangered species of turtle or fish lived, and that wouldn't be harm,” Boyles said.

Meanwhile, a representative of the oil and gas industry's key lobbying organization, welcomed the change.

We look “forward to working with the administration on commonsense ESA policies that both protect wildlife and support American energy dominance," Scott Lauermann, spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, told The Post.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said innovation, not regulation, is the key to saving wildlife. He pointed to new biotech that helped create three wolf pups that resemble the long-extinct dire wolf.

“It’s time to fundamentally change how we think about species conservation,” Burgum wrote on X.

More information

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has more on the Endangered Species Act.

SOURCE: The Washington Post, April 16, 2025