On July 10, the Trump administration announced a motion that would reduce habitat protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), leaving more than 1,300 endangered species more vulnerable to extinction, including many that live in both Canada and the U.S.
Since 1975, “harm” under the ESA has included habitat degradation or modification that kills or injures wildlife by impairing essential behavioral patterns such as breeding, feeding, or sheltering. Now, Trump’s Department of the Interior and Department of Commerce wants to rescind that definition, calling it “outdated” and an “unlawful regulatory intrusion.”
According to a press release from the Interior, this move will “reduce unnecessary permitting, cut compliance costs, and eliminate confusion for landowners, small businesses, energy producers, farmers, ranchers and local governments.”
In the wake of the announcement, almost a dozen groups have filed lawsuits against the repeal, which is set to go into effect on September 14. Meanwhile, wildlife conservationists in both Canada and the U.S. have spoken out about the dangers this regulatory change would pose for endangered species across North America.
“Under the new wording in the ESA, you now can basically develop these species’ habitats in the U.S., as long as you’re not directly killing the animals,” says Lance Woolaver, the executive director of Wildlife Preservation Canada. “This will directly impact species that migrate between the U.S. and Canada for part of the year or that straddle the border.”
Woolaver says species at risk that partially reside in Canada include the whooping crane, the monarch butterfly, the eastern loggerhead shrike, the piping plover, the North Atlantic right whale, along with orcas, grizzly bears, wolverines, and more. With regulations protecting these species’ habitats weakened, the natural environments critical for food, clean drinking water, and human enjoyment are also at risk.
At the same time, Canadian governments are imposing their own regulatory changes that reduce protections for endangered species. At the federal level, a discussion paper published earlier this summer proposed fast tracking major projects, in part, by making certain projects exempt from the jeopardy test for species at risk. Ontario’s Bill 5, which was enacted last June, also aims to accelerate infrastructure growth, mining, and resource projects by granting cabinet ministers the ability to bypass provincial rules and environmental regulations.
“These [environmental protection] laws were pioneering at the time they were created,” says Woolaver. “And now we’re seeing this pattern where they’re either being weakened by changing definitions, or in the case of Ontario, being scrapped entirely.”
Woolaver says Trump’s changes to the U.S. ESA will be hard to combat from this side of the border, but advocacy and awareness will be key to minimizing the threat to trans-border endangered species and their habitats in Canada. “Whether it’s provincial or federal, we need to let decision makers know that we don’t want to see the same thing happening here in Canada that’s happening in the States,” he says.
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