Home · Science · Sep 17 archive
Trump Signs Order to Review Endangered Species Protections for Wolves
Confirmed
In Short: The move could potentially strip protections for grey and Mexican wolves, drawing criticism from conservation groups.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to review the endangered species protection status of grey and Mexican wolves, a move that could potentially strip them of federal protections.
The order does not immediately remove protections but gives Interior Secretary Doug Burgum 90 days to assess whether the wolf populations have recovered enough to be taken off the endangered species list.
Conservation groups have criticized the move, arguing it could derail long-term recovery efforts for the endangered wolf populations.
The Trump administration's action also reinterprets the Endangered Species Act to counter what it calls 'federal overreach,' a change that California is suing to block, arguing it threatens vital habitat.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office has filed two lawsuits to challenge the Trump administration's revisions to the Endangered Species Act, which include changes that rescind a definition of harm that made it illegal to damage the places where endangered species live.
These changes could open up habitat where endangered species shelter, breed, and eat to mining, logging, and other development, potentially endangering the recovery of species like the grey and Mexican wolves.
What's confirmed
- President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to review the endangered species protection status of grey and Mexican wolves, a move that could potentially strip them of federal protections.
- The order does not immediately remove protections but gives Interior Secretary Doug Burgum 90 days to assess whether the wolf populations have recovered enough to be taken off the endangered species list.
- Conservation groups have criticized the move, arguing it could derail long-term recovery efforts for the endangered wolf populations.
- The Trump administration's action also reinterprets the Endangered Species Act to counter what it calls 'federal overreach,' a change that California is suing to block, arguing it threatens vital habitat.
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office has filed two lawsuits to challenge the Trump administration's revisions to the Endangered Species Act, which include changes that rescind a definition of harm that made it illegal to damage the places where endangered species live.
- These changes could open up habitat where endangered species shelter, breed, and eat to mining, logging, and other development, potentially endangering the recovery of species like the grey and Mexican wolves.
What's still developing
- Meanwhile, there are roughly 18,000 grey wolves across the US, though they are still considered endangered as most of their habitat has been destroyed by humans.
- And they end what the administration called a “burdensome” rule that extended automatic protections to threatened species — forcing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to now hand craft rules specific to each species newly designated as threatened.
- This added work comes amid major staff cuts to the agency, which the Center for Biological Diversity reported lost more than a third of its staff under the Trump administration and faces a backlog of 400 species awaiting protection decisions.
- The administration, thus far, has protected only three, according to Noah Greenwald, endangered species co-director at the nonprofit conservation organization.
- The stakes are high for California, which is home to more threatened and endangered species than any state besides Hawaii, according to the attorney general’s office.
- There’s another, even more challenging gap to address: the California Endangered Species Act, “on its face, does not count habitat of listed species as something that’s protected,” according to Eric Biber, a professor at UC Berkeley Law — though, he added, there’s uncertainty and debate about the law’s interpretation.
- California’s beloved condors and sea otters have rebounded from the brink of extinction thanks to the Endangered Species Act.
- Now the state is going to court to keep the 50-year-old law intact, filing two lawsuits Wednesday to block what Democratic leaders describe as the Trump administration’s rollback of its protections.