Tell the USFWS That More Protections Are Needed for Endangered Species, Not Fewer

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

The administration is trying to change the very definition of the word “habitat” — a change that would make it even harder to save threatened creatures under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).¹

At a time when wildlife are disappearing faster than ever, we can’t afford to weaken a law that has protected them for nearly half a century.

Fortunately, we still have time to act. Before it finalizes the proposal, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is legally required to accept and weigh comments from the public.

Submit your comment today at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=39780 to show the FWS that the public wants more protections for endangered species, not fewer.

Today, many endangered species occupy a tiny fraction of their former range, and need to be recovered to larger areas — often outside their current habitat — in order to survive and thrive in the long term.

But under this new rule, species that relocate to new habitats, even if those habitats are in their former range, may not be protected from mining, drilling and development.²

That’s because the rule would change the definition of “habitat” to mean only places where the species lives today, or that could host the species as it is. Areas that could one day become habitat, or that could be restored to become habitat, wouldn’t be protected.

Consider the endangered sea otter. It no longer lives in much of its former range, and helping the species recover means helping it reinhabit its former range.

But this new proposal would make it harder to help species that have lost their former range recover.

Take action: Submit your comment and show the FWS that Pennsylvanians oppose this rule.

Scientists warn that what many have called a sixth mass extinction of wildlife is accelerating — and more than 500 species of land animals could vanish from the face of the Earth within the next 20 years.³

At a time when wildlife are more threatened than ever before, we should be working to strengthen — not weaken — the law that protects them.

The Endangered Species Act has saved more than 99 percent of listed species from going extinct.⁴ We wouldn’t have the whooping crane, bald eagle, humpback whale, American alligator or California condor today without it.

Let’s keep this law strong. Take action.

1. Bobby Magill, “Endangered Species ‘Habitat’ Proposal Raises Climate Questions,” Bloomberg Law, August 7, 2020.
2. Bobby Magill, “Endangered Species ‘Habitat’ Proposal Raises Climate Questions,” Bloomberg Law, August 7, 2020.
3. Damian Carrington, “Sixth mass extinction of wildlife accelerating, scientists warn,” The Guardian, June 1, 2020
4. .”U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Begins Commemoration of 40th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, February 18, 2015.