1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

The Trump Administration just gutted the Endangered Species Act, and I need you to act. By rescinding the regulatory definition of "harm," the administration has declared that burning, draining, poisoning, and bulldozing critical habitat is no longer a violation of the ESA. Effective immediately, only the direct killing of a listed animal counts. That's not a technicality — it's an extinction policy. Over 1,300 threatened and endangered species depend on habitat protections to survive. Grizzly bears, wolverines, Florida manatees, cutthroat trout — none of these animals are disappearing because someone is shooting them. They're disappearing because their ecosystems are being destroyed. The administration's own words frame habitat destruction as merely "indirect or speculative" harm. That's the same logic the tobacco industry used to deny that cigarettes caused cancer. The ESA has worked for 50 years because it recognized that protecting wildlife means protecting the land, water, and ecosystems they need to live. This rule tears that foundation out. Please use every tool available to you — legislative, oversight, or otherwise — to reverse this decision and restore full habitat protections under the ESA.