U.S. Interior Department revokes blanket protections for threatened species

The Interior Department announced that species added to the threatened list will no longer receive automatic habitat protections. Instead, each case will require an individualized protection plan and an analysis of economic impacts before critical habitat can be designated. The rule change, finalized on Friday, reverses a policy reinstated earlier this year that had extended "blanket protections" to all threatened wildlife and plants.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the Endangered Species Act had been used for too long to halt new projects, adding that "Success should be measured by species recovery and delisting, not by adding more species to the list."

Conservation advocates warned that the new requirements could make it harder to protect species such as monarch butterflies, alligator snapping turtles, California spotted owls and several other insects, fish and mammals that are currently proposed for threatened status. Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity said, "If you're exempting certain industries that cause habitat destruction, in many instances you'll be exempting the main threat to those species."

The administration previously made similar changes during the Trump administration, which were later reversed under Biden. A lawsuit filed by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Property and Environment Research Center argued that the earlier blanket-protection rule unfairly restricted landowners even after a species' status improved from endangered to threatened. Jonathan Wood, vice president of the research center, said the Trump-era approach "better reward[s] progress and encourage[s] proactive conservation."

No species have been added to the endangered or threatened lists during the current administration, compared with about 60 additions under Biden and more than 20 during President Trump's first term. Recent actions also include narrowing the definition of "harm" to allow development in critical habitats where animals are not directly killed, reducing critical habitat designations for the Canada lynx in the Rocky Mountains, and shifting more management authority for grizzly bears to state agencies.

The Endangered Species Act is credited with recovering iconic species such as the bald eagle and American alligator, and the department noted that 97% of species that have received protection remain listed.