New Mexico's endangered species face a greater risk of extinction after the Trump administration finalized a rule removing habitat protections from legislation passed more than 50 years ago.
By narrowing the definition of "harm," conservationists said places wildlife call home will now be open to logging, drilling, mining, real estate development and more.
Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the landmark Endangered Species Act has been pivotal in safeguarding more than 1,300 U.S. species.
"In ignoring this precedent, the Trump administration is opening the door for all kinds of industries to destroy the natural world and drive wildlife to extinction in the process," Jordahl asserted.
For decades, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have defined harm to include “significant habitat modification or degradation" killing or injuring animals by impairing their ability to eat, shelter or breed.
The Trump administration’s rescission of the definition comes 30 years after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 1973 law, ruling against property owners who argued "harm" means directly killing or injuring an endangered animal.
Tara Zuardo, senior campaigner for the center, noted polling consistently confirms four of five Americans support the core mission of the Endangered Species Act. Zuardo expects legal challenges when the federal government approves a development proposal using its revised definition of harm.
"A particular project that's going to bulldoze a species' home isn't technically harming the species because it's not someone shooting the animal, it's just someone taking all of their habitat, and that is when we would challenge the actual implementation of the law," Zuardo outlined.
The Trump administration has taken multiple actions to weaken environmental regulations designed to fight climate change and prevent species extinction, arguing the regulations have been weaponized to block drilling and other development nationwide.
