Date: 7/10/26 12:43 pm From: Derb Carter (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: a dark day for endangered birds and animals
Since its enactment 53 years ago, the Endangered Species Act has protected the habitat of endangered birds and other animals from destruction that would harm the animals dependent on that habitat for survival. Protection of habitat for endangered animals is based on both the science that these species need the habitat to survive and avoid extinction, and that congress enacted the law not only to prevent extinction but also restore the ecosystems species need to recover. Protection of habitat under the Act has undoubtedly prevented the extinction of numerous species and enabled an increasing number to recover from the risk of extinction. Habitat loss is the primary factor for listing 76 of the 79 bird species currently endangered or threatened in the US.
Protections of essential habitat for endangered animals have stood for over fifty years under Republican and Democratic Presidents and Republican and Democratic Congresses. Thirty years ago, the US Supreme Court upheld the longstanding rules of the Fish and Wildlife Service protecting the habitat of endangered animals under the Endangered Species Act. But today, the lawless Trump Administration announced the repeal the rule providing protection to habitat for endangered animals. and that it will beginning next week no longer protect the habitat these species need to survive. It is a very dark day for endangered birds and animals. There will be legal challenges. Of the many - and there are many - horrendous things the Trump Administration has done to destroy our environment and natural resources this has to be one of the worst.
