Trump Administration Aims to Redefine ‘Harm’ for Endangered Species​on April 17, 2025 at 6:32 am

The Trump administration is moving to effectively eliminate a crucial protection in the half-century-old Endangered Species Act by redefining a single word: harm.

A proposed rule, issued on Wednesday from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would repeal a longstanding interpretation of what it means to harm imperiled plants and animals to exclude the destruction of habitat.

The move is part of a plan by President Trump to increase drilling, logging and development in the United States, and to eliminate regulations that slow the issuance of permits.

Administration officials called the current definition of harm to endangered species overly broad, siding with businesses that have long argued that the language imposes a burden. They called for a more narrow interpretation, saying that species should be protected only from intentional killing or injury, like through hunting or trapping.

Habitat loss is the single biggest reason that many species face extinction. Environmental advocates said the changes would make it all but impossible to protect the forests, grasslands, rivers and other habitats that threatened species rely upon to survive. “The vast majority of imperiled wildlife listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA are there because of loss of habitat,” said Andrew Bowman, president and chief executive of Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group, using an abbreviation for the Endangered Species Act.

Mr. Bowman and others described the proposal as the most significant setback to date for the Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law in 1973 by President Richard Nixon.