by The Trump administration plans to remove the protection of the habitat for endangered and endangered species in one step that environmentalists would lead to the extinction of critically endangered species due to logging, mining, mining, development and other activities.
It is a long -term definition of “damage” in the law over endangered species that contains the change or destruction of the places where these species live. The destruction of the habitat is the biggest cause of extinction, said Noah Greenwald, director of endangered species in the Center for Biological Diversity.
In a proposed rule, the US fish and wildlife service and the National Marine Fisherie Service said on Wednesday that the change in the habitat should not be considered damage, since it is not the same as it is deliberately referred to as a “take”. Environmentalists argue that the definition of “take” always has measures that harm types and the definition of “damage” was confirmed by the Supreme Court.
The proposed rule “cuts the heart from the law over endangered species,” said Greenwald. “If (you) damage does not mean that the deterioration or modification of habitats does not mean a significant habitat, then it leaves really endangered species in the cold.”
For example, he said that the covered owls and Florida Panthers are both protected because the current rule prohibits the destruction of habitats. But if the new rule is adopted, someone who logs in a forest would build up a development as long as he could say that he did not intend to harm an endangered way, he said.
The proposed rule was expected to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday and started a 30-day public commentary period.
A spokeswoman for the US fish and wildlife service referred the Associated Press to the Ministry of the Interior, which was leaning, a comment.
Environmental groups will question the rule in court when it is adopted, Drew Caputo, a lawyer of Eartheaustice, said.
He said that the proposal threatened “half a century of progress in protecting and restoring the endangered species”, including the white -head lake eagle, gray wolves, sea kebabs and humpback whales. He said, that is because the current rule “recognizes the concept of common sense that the destruction of a forest, a beach, river or the wetland, which is dependent on a way for survival, is harmful to this type.”
The question is whether the Trump administration is entitled to cancel a rule that was specially confirmed by the Supreme Court and is therefore subject to precedent, said Patrick Parenteau, emeritus professor at the law of Vermont and Graduate School, who treated endangered species cases.
Due to the current definition of damage, “many, many million acres of land were preserved” in order to maintain species alive, he said.
The problem is of particular importance in Hawaii, which has more endangered species than any other state – 40% of the country listed and endangered by the states.
Birds are among the most endangered. According to the Foreign Ministry for Land and natural resources, 71 birds have died out since the arrival of the people. Thirty-one of the 42 remaining endemic birds are listed as part of the US law on endangered species, the department said and ten of which have not been seen for decades.
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Associated Press Reporter Audrey McAvoy in Hawaii contributed to this report.
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