TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Trump administration is proposing changes that would narrow the scope of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a move that has sparked concern among conservationists who fear the impact on vulnerable wildlife\u2014especially species native to Florida.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Trump Administration wants to narrow scope of Endangered Speicies Act
\n
Conservationists at ZooTampa expressed concern for species like manatees
\n
A public comment period is open from Nov. 21 to Dec. 22<\/p>\n
At ZooTampa, animal care teams who work closely with threatened animals like manatees say the proposed revisions could undermine decades of conservation progress.<\/p>\n
Marie Filipek, a senior animal care professional at ZooTampa, has spent six years rehabilitating manatees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just an iconic species\u2014you can\u2019t look at a manatee and not love them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Many of the manatees that arrive at ZooTampa are rescued after being found sick, injured or orphaned. Last year alone, the facility rehabilitated 28 manatees\u2014a record number.<\/p>\n
Manatees, often called \u201cgentle giants\u201d or \u201csea cows,\u201d have no natural predators and lack strong instincts to avoid danger. The population is still recovering from massive die-offs in 2021 and 2022, when about 2,000 manatees died statewide.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the biggest issues was seagrass die-off on the east coast,\u201d Filipek explained. \u201cThat led to a lot of starvation\u2026 we were seeing many emaciated cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filipek says the ESA remains essential\u2014not only for manatees, but for numerous Florida species struggling to survive, including the Florida panther, gopher tortoise, and grasshopper sparrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we loosen those protections, it can cause a problem for them in the wild,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Among the proposed ESA changes:\u00a0Modifying how species and critical habitat are evaluated and allowing economic considerations to influence listing decisions.<\/p>\n
Critics argue that allowing economic factors to override scientific assessments could jeopardize habitats crucial for species recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy protecting their habitats, it’s also protecting us,\u201d Filipek added. \u201cClean waterways, clean air\u2014those things affect humans too. It\u2019s a snowball effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum defended the proposal, saying the administration aims to \u201crestore the Endangered Species Act to its original intent\u2014protecting species through clean, consistent and lawful standards that also respect the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our lands and resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the uncertainty, Filipek says ZooTampa will continue its mission to rehabilitate and release manatees and support other threatened Florida wildlife.<\/p>\n
A 30-day public comment period is now open, beginning Nov. 21 and ending Dec. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The Trump administration is proposing changes that would narrow the scope of the Endangered Species Act…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1147,101215,11638,192,165545,3,13677,111,79,624,13309,201],"class_list":["post-324246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-environment","tag-jeff-van-sant","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-politics","tag-science","tag-tampa","tag-vod","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}