Washington D.C. — September 14, 2026 — Washington, D.C. —
Today, the Trump administration’s unprecedented move to strip imperiled species of protections for the places where they live went into effect. American wildlife including Florida manatees, grizzlies, salmon and steelhead, bird species like rufa red knots, golden-cheeked warblers and northern spotted owls, Hawaiian monk seals, and insect pollinators that allow farmers to raise crops — all face a new threat to their survival.
Local and conservation groups representing millions of people across the U.S. are calling on the White House to stop its war on our fish, wildlife, and wild places. The decision to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) could enable extractive industries to destroy or modify the habitat of imperiled plants and animals — the places they need to feed, shelter, raise their young — even if it results in their death or injury.
Destroying species’ habitat could also destabilize ecosystems throughout the country, which people rely on for everything from access to clean water to disease prevention. Destroying wild places could also damage agricultural systems and reduce tourism and outdoor recreation.
The Trump administration’s repeal of the “harm rule” was met with broad opposition. According to The New York Times, 99 percent of the nearly 220,000 public comments submitted to the administration about the repeal were against the change. Republicans and Democrats alike have introduced bills in the House and Senate to undo the repeal. And numerous former directors of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents denounced the rule’s demise.
The harm rule was the first in a series of other ESA rollbacks the Trump administration finalized this summer: another rule deprives newly listed threatened animal and plant species from automatically receiving protections from killing, trapping, and other forms of prohibited “take” under the ESA; an additional rule gives outsize weight to “economic considerations” when the federal government decides whether to protect endangered species and critical habitat. Conservation groups have challenged these rules in court; but the White House is expected to finalize even more rules attempting to weaken the law in the fall.
The administration’s attacks on a law that has saved 99% of species under its protection from going extinct — including bald eagles, American bison, gray wolves, and humpback whales — remain politically unpopular: more than four out of five Americans support the ESA.
Local and Conservation Groups Representing Millions of People Across U.S. Denounce Trump Administration’s Endangered Species Act “Harm” Rule:
“With this drastic weakening of the Endangered Species Act, the Trump Administration is abandoning one of the most basic truths of wildlife protection: animals cannot survive when their homes are destroyed,” said Susan Holmes, Executive Director of the Endangered Species Coalition. “This reckless decision leaves our most treasured wildlife, from endangered salmon to gray wolves, vulnerable to the destruction of the places they need to live, find food, and raise their young. It is impossible to save species while allowing their homes to be destroyed. This is a devastating blow to wildlife and a dangerous step backward for endangered species.”
“Today is another example of how this administration constantly violates the law, science, and the popular will,” said Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles. “We stand with people all across the country, across political affiliations, who know that the destruction of a species’ habitat causes harm and will not tolerate more nonsense.”
“The Trump administration ignored the law, science and public opinion when it stripped protections against habitat destruction that kills or injures imperiled species,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “Defenders has challenged the decision in court and will use the full force of the law to restore protections for threatened and endangered species and the forests, mountains, prairies, rivers, lakes and oceans they call home.”
“This is how a landmark law gets hollowed out: not in one stroke, but by cutting away what it can actually prevent,” said Bradley Williams, Deputy Legislative Director for the Sierra Club’s Wildlife and Lands Protection campaign. “With the harm rule now gone, the Trump administration is drawing an artificial line between killing an animal and eliminating the conditions that keep it alive. Congress and the courts must reject that distinction before the administration cuts still more holes in the ESA.”
“You cannot protect a species while you destroy its home. With this rule, the administration has decided that bulldozing a nesting ground or draining a wetland somehow doesn’t hurt the animals that live there. That is wrong, and endangered species will pay for it with their lives,” said Andrew Wetzler, senior vice president for Nature at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “Habitat loss is the biggest driver of extinction in this country, and Congress understood that when it passed the Endangered Species Act. The administration went ahead anyway, because the industries that want to log, mine, and drill these places asked it to.”
“Now it’s open season for industry to attempt to bulldoze, mine, log, or drill through Southern mountains, forests, wetlands and oceans without protective measures. What’s worse is the public may not even know about these harmful projects until they see trees coming down,” said Catherine Wannamaker, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “It could take generations for species to recover, especially here in the South where development and rising temperatures already threaten our world-class biodiversity.”
“This is the gravest threat of our lifetimes to our most important wildlife protection law– species like piping plovers are disappearing due to habitat loss and now habitat destruction is legally permissible,” said Chris Allieri, executive director and founder, NYC Plover Project. “Rescinding the ‘harm rule’ weakens the authority of the USFWS and the power of the ESA itself, in direct defiance of the will of millions of Americans who sent comments, called their elected officials, and made their voices heard, in support of species and ecosystem protections.”
The following is a statement by Gib Brogan, senior campaign director at Oceana, after the Trump administration moved to weaken key protections under the Endangered Species Act. “The Endangered Species Act is one of the nation’s most effective conservation laws. For half a century, it has served as both a shield against extinction and a tool for species recovery. When you remove habitat protections, you remove one of the law’s most important safeguards. Habitat loss is the number one cause of extinction. By undermining the act’s power to protect species from the very harms driving their decline, the administration is essentially greenlighting their extinction. This is just the latest move by the administration to prioritize short-term gains over the survival of countless species. We urge policymakers to reject the administration’s continued attacks on the act, for when a species goes extinct, there is no going back. The future of our oceans and the countless species that inhabit them depends on our resolve to uphold and defend the Endangered Species Act.”
“Destroying or damaging habitats is just as lethal to endangered species as directly hurting them, said Bart Melton, senior wildlife program director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “This rule ignores decades of conservation science and could undermine recovery efforts for more than 600 species, from salmon in Olympic to grizzlies in Yellowstone, that rely on lands and waters connected to our national parks. When combined with the administration’s actions to roll back roadless protections and weaken wilderness stewardship to fast-track development, this rule paves the way for mining, oil and gas drilling, and logging in areas that are crucial to the survival of some of our most vulnerable species.”