Endangered species\u2019 habitats will no longer be protected from harmful human activity \u2014 as long as it does not directly kill the animal \u2014 under the Trump administration\u2019s revisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rule change \u2014 which takes effect on September 14 \u2014 could impact Santa Barbara County\u2019s endangered species, such as southern California steelhead trout, California condors, and red-legged frogs, environmentalists warn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On September 9, Bonta announced he is co-leading a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing two lawsuits<\/a> against the Trump administration for this and other revisions to the ESA.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Bonta, the rules drastically reduce protections for listed fish and wildlife species\u2019 habitat; establish an unlawful process for excluding areas from critical habitat designations; and curtail the ESA\u2019s protections for newly listed threatened animal and plant species. The lawsuits argue that the rules violate the ESA and other federal administrative and environmental laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration has continuously sought to put our ecosystems in danger, which is why we continue to take them to court,\u201d said Attorney General Bonta in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor over half a century, the ESA has stood as a bipartisan example of what it means to protect an irreplaceable part of our planet, but these new rules attempt to destroy longstanding and integral regulatory protections and open the door to further species decline and possible extinctions,\u201d he continued. \u201cToday, we are taking action to protect our environment and all those with whom we share the planet.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The rules have been met with much resistance, including from the former heads of federal environmental agencies. On September 10, seven former Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), published a letter<\/a> calling on the Trump administration to reverse its revisions of the harm definition in ESA.<\/p>\n \u201cThe administration is arguing that you can protect endangered animals without protecting the places they need to survive,\u201d the officials wrote. \u201cFifty years of science \u2014 and common sense \u2014 say otherwise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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