Act Now: Defend the Endangered Species Act!

Stop Trump’s Assault on our nation’s most successful and effective conservation laws.

Your voice is needed to speak up for endangered wildlife! The Endangered Species Act is one of the world’s most important environmental laws, representing core American values of stewardship, conservation and science-based reasoning. The ESA serves as a safety net for protecting the diversity of life when everything else has failed. It has provided a chance at survival for spotted owl, marbled murrelet, Canada lynx, sage grouse, wolf, wolverine, and grizzly bear, as well as many other species, great and small, across the Pacific Northwest.

The Trump administration is once again proposing changes to ESA regulations that would lift key safeguards and reduce protections for wildlife facing dire extinction threats. They proposed these changes in 2018 and are trying again to make it easier for developers, timber companies, and polluters to profit from destroying habitat.  The changes would remove protections for “threatened” species, insert economic factors into biological listing assessments, and make it harder to protect wildlife habitat for recovery.

Help protect America’s fish and wildlife and defend the Endangered Species Act before the comment period closes on December 22.

These proposed changes appear in several different ESA regulations, each with its own comment portal. Commenting at all four will have the greatest impact, but even one thoughtful comment helps protect the wildlife we care about.

• Threatened Species Protections
• Interagency Consultation Requirements
• Critical Habitat Exclusions
• ESA Listing Criteria & Critical Habitat Rules

Template letter for comments

Subject:  FWS Rulemaking Dockets: FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0029; FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0039; FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0044; FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0048

I’m writing to oppose key adverse changes to Endangered Species Act rules that would reduce protections for wildlife facing extinction. I care deeply for our nation’s wildlife and am a strong supporter of the Endangered Species Act. It is a bedrock American environmental law that protects our most vulnerable wildlife, providing a backstop against irretrievable loss of the nation’s natural heritage.

Retain blanket protections for species listed as “threatened” under the Act, because removing the automatic 4(d) rule could cause imperiled wildlife to endure habitat loss and other threats.  Requiring rule-making from scratch in lieu of allowing blanket protections until more tailored rules are developed will also place a large burden on overworked staff, further delaying key protections for species. 

 Keep listing decisions scientifically focused on biology, not economics, to ensure an accurate account of which species most need care and attention.  Even though the rule is saying that economic information won’t be part of the listing decision, including it as part of a listing package will be confusing, and add yet another cost to the process.

I am opposed to any weakening of habitat protections that will be harmful to vulnerable wildlife, including around unoccupied habitat for recovery, where agency consultation is required, or resulting from climate change.

Finally, I am opposed to weakening the Section 7 consultation process by changing the definition and practice of what is considered an “effect” of an agency action.  In the complex world we live in with many interacting reasons for species decline, I am concerned proposed changes will reduce the effectiveness of this crucial part of the ESA.

I encourage you to focus efforts on strengthening the Endangered Species Act’s rules by focusing on improving wildlife recovery efforts. With all the pressure on wildlife from population growth and development, and looming threat of climate change, we need a strong and effective Endangered Species Act now more than ever. Thank you.