Federal policymakers target endangered species

The Jefferson Exchange

The North Umpqua River is home to endangered and threatened salmon and home to lamprey significant to the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians. ( Bureau of Land Management)

Joseph Vaile, Senior Representative for the Northwest Program of Defenders of Wildlife, joins the Exchange. The organization believes our society is experiencing a biodiversity crisis. And the planet is losing plant and animal species at an alarming rate.

Joseph Vaile will discuss the Trump administration's targeting of the Endangered Species Act for changes that could weaken it.

A draft rule from the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) repeals the current definition of “harm” that is prohibited under the ESA.

Currently, agencies interpret harm to include damage to species’ habitat, but the Trump administration is trying to change that aspect of the rule. It would loosen restrictions on industrial activities that could damage an endangered animal’s habitat, even if the animal itself is not harmed.

In their letter, the Democrats argue that the administration’s reading of the statute presents an “end run around” of the ESA and “completely negates” Congress’s intent when it passed the act in 1973 to protect endangered species from going extinct.

California spotted owl in tree(Rick Kuyper/USFWS / https://www.fws.gov/media/california-spotted-owl-0)

Orcas in the Southern Resident Killer Whale endangered J Pod play in the Salish Sea at sunset off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.(Richard Ellis / Alamy Stock Photo / https://www.alamy.com/orcas-in-the-southern-resident-killer-whale-endangered-j-pod-play-in-the-salish-sea-at-sunset-august-4-2018-off-vancouver-island-british-columbia-canada-j-pod-orcas-have-suffered-declines-in-numbers-and-health-and-will-be-part-of-a-p)