April 13, 2025 - WASHINGTON— The Trump administration has launched a process to redefine what it means to “harm” threatened and endangered 
species, the first step toward stripping habitat protections from rare plants and animals headed toward extinction.
Yellow Legged Frog Credit: RebeccaFabbri/USFWS
The Interior Department sent the proposed rule last Monday to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review but has not yet made it available.
“Weakening the definition of harm would cut the heart out of the Endangered Species Act and be a death sentence for plants and animals on the brink of extinction,” said Noah Greenwald, codirector of endangered species at the Center. “The Trump administration has been systematically killing protections for our air, water, wildlife and climate like a vicious cancer. The malignant greed driving these policies threatens to greatly increase destruction of the natural world and turbocharge the extinction crisis. We’ll keep fighting for each and every one of these plants and animals.”
The Endangered Species Act prohibits “take” of endangered species by people, government entities and corporations. Congress defined “take” broadly to include actions that “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect” species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has defined “harm” to include “significant habitat modification or degradation.”
Habitat destruction is the primary cause of extinction, so the federal definition of harm has been pivotal to protecting and recovering endangered species. It was upheld in the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case Babbit v. Sweet Home.
From spotted owls to Florida panthers, including habitat destruction in the prohibition on “take” has been critical to saving plants and animals from extinction. It’s a key difference between the federal Endangered Species Act and almost all state endangered species laws.
“Unless habitat destruction is prohibited, spotted owls, sea turtles, salmon and so many more animals and plants won’t have a chance,” said Greenwald. “Humanity’s survival depends on biodiversity and no one voted to fast-track extinction. This is a five-alarm fire.”
Our planet faces a global extinction crisis never witnessed by humankind. Scientists predict that more than 1 million species are on track for extinction in the coming decades.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
