Proposed Assault on Endangered Species Act Would Push Park Wildlife Toward Extinction

WASHINGTON–Despite overwhelming public support for the Endangered Species Act, the Trump administration is moving forward with four proposals to once again roll back critical wildlife protections.

Today, as our public lands are reeling from staffing and funding cuts, the Trump administration released a set of proposed regulations aimed at weakening the Endangered Species Act, the nation’s most effective tool in saving wildlife from extinction.

Our national parks provide habitat for over 600 of the nation’s threatened and endangered species, but national parks alone aren’t enough to save our most vulnerable plants and animals that rely on interconnected landscapes and strong protections beyond park boundaries.

If enacted, these proposals could lead to the decline of hundreds of species already on the brink. They would gut critical threatened and endangered species protections by allowing economic factors to be analyzed when deciding if a species should be saved and whether to protect critical habitat. This goes against the very intent of this bedrock environmental law, making it easier to build roads, pipelines, mines, and other industrial projects in critical habitat areas that are essential to imperiled species like the Mojave Desert tortoise and Florida panther survival. All of this makes it much more difficult to extend protections to threatened species, and delays lifesaving action until a species’ population is potentially impossible to save.

The Endangered Species Act continues to be extremely effective. More than 99 percent of animals, plants and insects protected by the law have been saved from extinction. Without it, we wouldn’t have some of the nation’s most celebrated park wildlife, including the iconic bald eagle, Florida manatee, American gray wolf and humpback whale.

National polling conducted by NPCA in 2023 found that more than 4 in 5 Americans (86%), including 87% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans, support federal agency efforts to continue recovery of threatened and endangered species.

A 30-day public comment period is scheduled to begin November 21.

Statement from Stephanie Adams, Director of Wildlife at the National Parks Conservation Association:

“The Trump administration is set on ignoring the will of the American people by decimating protections for endangered and threatened wildlife. Instead, their actions aim to dismantle the foundational tool that supports our more than 600 threatened and endangered fish, wildlife and plants of our national parks to fast track mining and drilling.

“Not only would this fundamentally change our ability to protect much of the habitats these species depend on, it could lead to increased extinction. It politicizes the selection process for species recovery and undercuts decades of sound science in decision-making.

“The proposed changes, coupled with the mass firing of dedicated staff at US Fish and Wildlife and the National Park Service, put the fate of species like Pacific salmon, the ghost orchid, and the red-cockaded woodpecker in a potentially dire position. Once a species is extinct, it’s gone. Is that the legacy we want to leave behind?”

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About the National Parks Conservation Association: Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its more than 1.9 million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nation’s most iconic and inspirational places for future generations. For more information, visit www.npca.org