Earlier this month, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed a new rule that could limit the scope of Endangered Species Act protections. The agencies are accepting public comments on the proposed rule change until May 19, 2025.
Background:
Currently, the Endangered Species Act prohibits certain actions that “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect” threatened and endangered organisms. Until now, “harm” was understood to include actions that significantly impact an organism’s habitat.
However, the new proposed rule change would rescind the regulatory definition of “harm,” limiting the Act’s prohibitions to actions that directly injure or kill listed species.
What you can do:
All ecologists have the opportunity to share their expertise and comment on the proposed rule by May 19, 2025.
Comment instructions from the Federal Register notice:
- Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.
- In the Search box, enter FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0034, which is the docket number for this rulemaking. Then, click on the Search button.
- On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document.
- You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.”
More resources:
- Read our tips on how to craft a public comment
- Review our complete Policy Toolkit
