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Stop the Destruction of Habitat That Endangered Wildlife Need to Survive

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Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site

A new federal rule strips away a longstanding wildlife safeguard and leaves vital habitat more vulnerable to logging, mining, drilling, and development.

Close-up of a bald eagle with a white head and yellow beak against a dark background.

The Trump administration has finalized a rule that rescinds a key Endangered Species Act regulation used to protect imperiled wildlife from destructive habitat changes. For decades, the federal definition of "harm" recognized significant habitat modification or degradation when it actually killed or injured protected wildlife by disrupting essential behaviors such as breeding, feeding, or sheltering.1

The new rule removes that regulatory definition. The Departments of the Interior and Commerce argue that the previous standard exceeded the text of the Endangered Species Act and placed unnecessary burdens on landowners and businesses.2

Wildlife Cannot Survive Without Habitat

The change could have major consequences for places where threatened and endangered animals live. Reuters reports that the Endangered Species Act affects federal decisions involving oil and gas projects, mining, electric transmission, and other activities on federal lands and waters.3

The Associated Press reports that the narrower approach could allow logging, drilling, mining, and other development in wildlife habitat so long as protected animals are not directly killed or injured.4

Yet animals depend on intact habitat for food, shelter, reproduction, migration, and survival. Destroying a nesting area, feeding ground, wetland, river, forest, or other essential habitat can leave wildlife with nowhere to meet those basic needs.

Decades of Wildlife Protection Are at Stake

The broader definition of harm had been part of federal Endangered Species Act enforcement for decades. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the inclusion of habitat destruction within that definition in 1995.5

The Endangered Species Act has been credited with helping species including bald eagles, California condors, and American alligators recover from severe declines.4 Conservation groups warn that weakening habitat safeguards could expose already vulnerable species to further losses as development reaches the places they depend on.

Hundreds of thousands of public comments opposed eliminating the habitat protection after the rule was proposed. Scientists, tribes, legal experts, and environmental organizations also raised objections.5

Restore Protection for the Places Wildlife Need

The Departments of the Interior and Commerce can act to restore strong Endangered Species Act habitat protections. Federal wildlife policy must recognize a basic biological reality: protected animals cannot survive when the places where they feed, breed, and shelter are destroyed.

Sign the petition and demand that federal officials restore Endangered Species Act habitat protections before more imperiled wildlife lose the places they need to survive.

More on this issue:

  1. Gabrielle Canon, The Guardian (10 July 2026), "‘Death Sentence’ Trump Administration to Open Habitats of Endangered Species to Logging and Mining."
  2. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior (10 July 2026), "Department of the Interior Restores Clear ESA Enforcement by Rescinding Misguided ‘Harm’ Definition."
  3. Reuters, Reuters (10 July 2026), "Trump Administration Rule Weakens Protections for Threatened Species."
  4. Wufei Yu and Matthew Brown, The Associated Press (10 July 2026), "Trump Administration Rolls Back a Key Protection for Imperiled Wildlife."
  5. Jackson Chiappinelli, Earthjustice (10 July 2026), "Trump Administration Eliminates Habitat Protections for Vulnerable Wildlife."

The Petition

To the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Commerce,

We call on the Departments of the Interior and Commerce to restore strong Endangered Species Act protections against habitat modification and degradation that kills or injures threatened and endangered wildlife.

For decades, federal regulations recognized that harm to protected wildlife can occur when essential habitat is severely damaged. The previous definition of "harm" specifically accounted for habitat modification or degradation that actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behaviors such as breeding, feeding, and sheltering.

The decision to rescind that definition creates a dangerous gap in federal wildlife protection.

Animals do not exist separately from their habitats. A species may escape direct physical injury from a bulldozer, logging operation, drilling project, or mine, yet still face severe consequences when its nesting grounds disappear, food sources are destroyed, or shelter is lost. Protecting an animal while ignoring the destruction of the place it needs to survive offers little meaningful security.

The Endangered Species Act has helped prevent the extinction of some of America's most vulnerable wildlife. Its protections have contributed to the recovery of species that once faced severe population declines. That success depends on federal agencies having effective tools to address the threats that place listed species at risk.

We recognize that federal policy must consider land use, economic activity, and the rights of property owners. However, those interests do not require abandoning a longstanding safeguard for animals already threatened with extinction. Humanity and compassion demand that federal agencies consider the real biological needs of wildlife when enforcing one of the nation's most important conservation laws.

We urge you to reverse course and restore a clear regulatory definition of harm that protects threatened and endangered wildlife from significant habitat modification or degradation that causes injury or death by disrupting essential behavioral patterns.

Restoring this protection will strengthen responsible wildlife conservation, preserve essential habitats, and give imperiled species a meaningful chance to recover. These actions will ensure a better future for all.

Sincerely,

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