1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Restore the Endangered Species Act's definition of "harm" and reject the Trump administration's attempt to gut 50 years of wildlife protection. The administration's September 14 rescission — followed by memos from US Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik and NOAA General Counsel John Luce — effectively legalizes "incidental" killing of protected species. That's not a regulatory tweak. It's open season on animals already on the brink of extinction. Habitat destruction is the single biggest cause of species endangerment in this country. The original ESA was written precisely to address that reality. Narrowing "take" to only intentional killing guts the law's core purpose and abandons Florida manatees, spotted owls, snowy plovers, and hundreds of other species to death by a thousand cuts. A coalition including the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and the Center for Biological Diversity has already filed suit arguing these memos are arbitrary, capricious, and violate the Administrative Procedure Act. They're right. Congress should act to codify the harm definition into statute so no administration can erase it by memo.