Thursday April 17, 2025
Courthouse News Service —
The U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday proposed a rule that would redefine what it means to “harm” a threatened or endangered species and rescind nearly all their habitat protections across the country.
The deregulatory proposal issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service seeks to eliminate a “legally incorrect” definition of the term “harm” to threatened and endangered wildlife under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) based on a belief that the definition is incompatible with the “best reading” of the 1973 law.
Narrowing the regulatory definition of “harm” would strip habitat destruction from the ESA’s prohibited actions, prompting outcry from conservationists who fear it would open the door to industrial destruction of places where endangered species live. Habitat degradation and destruction is a major factor in driving species toward extinction.
The landmark conservation law prohibits people, government entities and corporations from taking a listed animal without a permit. “Take” is defined as “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect.”