NRDC Activist,
To this day, the ESA is a success story and one of our nation's most effective wildlife protection laws — successfully preventing more than 99% of species under its care from going extinct, including the iconic grizzly bear and bald eagle.
Yet in 2019, the Trump Administration tried to rewrite this story, and targeted the ESA with short-sighted, anti-scientific rollbacks in a blatant attempt to eviscerate protections for the most imperiled species in our country.
But now, in response to a federal lawsuit, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) have proposed revisions that would reverse many of those Trump-era rollbacks and get this story back on track.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act — can we count on your help to ensure that the ESA protects species for another 50 years and beyond?
Tell the FWS and NMFS to finalize their proposed rules and go further to fully restore ESA protections to their historical strength.
While some of the proposals are a mixed bag, leaving in place some troubling Trump-era changes, the proposals from FWS and NMFS would restore many of the protections that had been lost. For example, the proposal:
- Strengthens key habitat safeguards to help address the onslaught of habitat destruction and climate change, key drivers of the biodiversity crisis
- Restores common-sense default protections for threatened species to prevent them from sliding further towards extinction
- Ensures that listing decisions are based on science, not money, and make it easier to consider future threats to species
As the world faces twin climate and biodiversity crises, these protections have never been more essential. They help to preserve functioning, intact ecosystems on which all life — including healthy people — depends. And with 1 million species worldwide at risk of extinction, we need bold steps to fully reverse efforts to undermine ESA protections and work to defend the law from future attacks.
Submit your comment today to tell FWS and NMFS to safeguard imperiled species and their homes by restoring and strengthening ESA protections.
Thank you for continuing to fight with us to protect endangered species.
Sincerely,
Lucas Rhoads
Staff Attorney, Wildlife, NRDC
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