ENDANGERED ACT MAY BE WEAKENED

If approved, plan would assess protections on case-by-case basis

The Trump administration proposes a plan to strip the Endangered Species Act of key provisions.

WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled a proposal Thursday that would strip the Endangered Species Act of key provisions, a move that conservationists say would weaken a law enacted 45 years ago to keep plants and animals in decline from going extinct.

The proposal, announced jointly by the Interior and Commerce departments, which are charged with protecting endangered wildlife, would end the practice of extending similar protections to species regardless whether they are listed as endangered or threatened. If the proposal is approved, likely by year’s end, protections for threatened plants and animals would be made on a case-by-case basis.

In another rollback of a key provision, the administration wants the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to strike language that guides officials to ignore economic impacts when determining how wildlife should be protected.

“We propose to remove the phrase ‘without reference to possible economic or other impacts of such determination’... to more closely align with the statutory language,” the proposed rule says. “The act requires the secretary to make determinations based ‘solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data.’ ”

Conservationists who worried about the changes, expected for months, said their fears have been realized.

“These regulations are the heart of how the Endangered Species Act is implemented. Imperiled species depend on them for their very lives,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, who was director of the Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton. Clark is now president and chief executive of Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit advocacy group.

“Unfortunately, the sweeping changes being proposed by the Trump administration include provisions that would undercut the effectiveness of the ESA and put species at risk of extinction,” Clark said. “The signal being sent by the Trump administration is clear: Protecting America’s wildlife and wild lands is simply not on their agenda.”

In April, the administration weakened a century-old law to protect birds by issuing guidance that says it would not be used as it had been to hold people or companies accountable for killing the animals.

The Interior Department told police who enforce the treaty that the act of killing birds, “when the underlying purpose of that activity” is not intended to kill them, is no longer prohibited. For example, the new guidance says, a person who destroys a structure such as a barn knowing that it is full of baby owls in nests is not liable for killing them.