Trump administration memo reduces ESA protections

The Trump administration released a memo that further pares back protections afforded by the Endangered Species Act, according to reporting accompanying the announcement. The change targets how the federal government applies the law to plants and wildlife listed as endangered or threatened, reducing regulatory safeguards that previously limited actions harming those species.

The Endangered Species Act has long prohibited the "take" of species designated as endangered, a legal bar used to restrict activities that kill, harm or otherwise impair protected animals and plants. The administration's memo alters how those prohibitions are interpreted or enforced, producing less stringent protections for some listed species.

Advocacy groups and other stakeholders are likely to scrutinize the memo and its practical effects, given the ESA's central role in coordinating recovery efforts and governing land- and resource-use decisions where listed species occur. The image accompanying the report was credited to Joy Asico of the Associated Press Content Services for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Details about the memo's specific provisions, the scope of species affected, and the timetable for implementation were not included in the brief summary provided here.