![\"Ehvan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/93c51400-91d2-4d88-8a63-4c801083c7fa_1787922593.file.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWildlife experts on the Central Coast are raising concerns about the Trump administration’s decision to weaken the Endangered Species Act, which has protected animals and their habitats for nearly five decades. <\/p>\n
Environmentalists say the act has not been canceled, but key provisions have been gutted. The Endangered Species Act has been credited with the recovery of several species, including southern sea otters, which are considered a success story on the Central Coast. <\/p>\n
“Southern sea otters have a large reason for their growth from very low numbers, and their recovery has been because of all of the attention and resources being an ESA-listed species has provided to them,” said Amy David of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. <\/p>\n
The changes to the act loosen regulations that previously prevented incidental harming or killing of animals on the endangered species list. Federally permitted projects such as oil drilling, logging, and shipping are now allowed in some sensitive habitats. Under the revised rules, it is only illegal to kill or harm an endangered species if the act is intentional. <\/p>\n
“An act like, say, cutting down a tree that has a woodpecker in it. Even if the woodpecker was in the tree wouldn’t count as harm under the act unless you were doing it to kill the woodpecker, not just to get the wood from the tree,” said Karrigan B\u00f6rk of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. “People aren’t going out and hunting listed species or imperiled species, so protecting that habitat is the single most important thing we do.” <\/p>\n
Monarch butterflies and other pollinators could also be at risk due to the changes, as their survival depends on preserving their habitats. While federal protections may be reduced, local communities like Pacific Grove are taking steps to safeguard pollinator-friendly areas. <\/p>\n
“Communities are realizing the importance of keeping pollinator-friendly areas, not just for the sake of the pollinators themselves, like the monarchs, but also for their own health and happiness, because we are all connected,” said Natalie Johnston. <\/p>\n
Around 1,600 animal and plant species are currently protected under the Endangered Species Act. Experts warn that changing the act may alter the future for these species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Coast wildlife experts alarmed by Endangered Species Act changes Wildlife experts on the Central Coast are raising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[19486,14144,363067,363066,57311,211662,363069,97957,363068,683,79,324443,44215,7246,201,167642,261215],"class_list":["post-860221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-act","tag-animal","tag-central-coast-expert","tag-endangered-species-act-change","tag-habitat","tag-local-community","tag-other-pollinator","tag-pacific-grove","tag-pollinator-friendly-area","tag-recovery","tag-science","tag-southern-sea-otter","tag-specie","tag-tree","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-expert","tag-woodpecker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860221","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=860221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}