This story comes from the Wisconsin News Collaborative, a partnership of Wisconsin public media newsrooms, including WUWM, Wisconsin Public Radio, and WXPR.
Conservation advocates in Wisconsin say the Trump administration’s rollback of the Endangered Species Act threatens habitat that’s crucial for endangered and threatened species in the state.
On Friday, the administration finalized a rule that limited the definition of “harm” under the 1973 law. Since 1975, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has interpreted harm as actions that significantly change or degrade habitat for a protected species. The change opens the door to development as long as it doesn’t directly kill or injure them.
Wisconsin has 25 species that are listed as federally threatened or endangered, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. They include the northern long-eared bat, Karner blue butterfly and piping plover.
The change is a huge step backwards for endangered species, said Stan Temple, emeritus professor of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Habitat loss is by far the No. 1 threat to endangered and threatened species,” Temple said.
Conservation groups filed lawsuits this week, challenging the rule. They argue that development of habitat by extractive industries threaten the survival of rare species. A Fish and Wildife Service spokesperson said the agency will vigorously defend the rule.
In announcing the decision, Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said federal agencies abused the law to block development, burdening families and businesses.
“That approach turned routine activity into a regulatory trap, drove up costs that impacted people’s lives, and expanded federal authority beyond what Congress intended,” Burgum said in a statement.
Meleesa Johnson, executive director of Wisconsin’s Green Fire, said the law has long stated that its purpose is “to provide a means whereby ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved.”
“We have to think of this in a system and not just use this land however we want. It’s so fundamental,” Johnson said. “If you remove a place for a species … how do they thrive?”
Temple said piping plover in Wisconsin may be most affected by the change.
“It’s a small shorebird that nests primarily along the shores of Lake Superior. Because it nests on lakefront areas, its habitat is very vulnerable to development, which has been forestalled essentially by the listing of critical habitat for this species,” Temple said.
Industry groups have supported the Trump administration’s changes to the law, including the National Mining Association, American Petroleum Institute and American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
The transportation construction industry said in comments filed last year that overly broad interpretations of the law “impose burdensome requirements on infrastructure projects–often with little or no additional benefit to wildlife.”
The law was key for the recovery of the bald eagle, and Green Fire’s Johnson said the national bird was threatened with extinction due in part to contamination from the insecticide DDT and habitat destruction.
“They needed that buffer in order to have a safe place in which to raise their young,” Johnson said. “If that changes, I think it’s a logical conclusion that those numbers could change.”
In a statement, the American Petroleum Institute said the oil and gas industry has taken significant steps to reduce impacts on wildlife and the environment while producing energy for the public.
“We remain committed to supporting commonsense ESA policies that both protect wildlife and support American energy leadership,” said Holly Hopkins, API vice president of upstream policy.
Wisconsin is home to an experimental population of whooping cranes that has grown to around 70 birds in the last two decades. The state once had thousands of the birds before they were lost to unregulated hunting and sold for food in city markets similar to the extinct passenger pigeon, said Rich Beilfuss, president and CEO of the International Crane Foundation.
By the 1940s, only 21 whooping cranes existed worldwide. Now, there’s around 700 birds nationwide. Beilfuss said they rely on grasslands and wetland areas for breeding and rearing chicks.
“We’re very worried about any change that really only addresses direct harm to the species and doesn’t look more broadly at the wetlands, the grasslands that they need,” Beilfuss said.
He added that wetland protections have already been weakened under the Clean Water Act, saying changes to the Endangered Species Act only compound threats to such at-risk species.
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