Don’t Greenlight Destruction of Endangered Species’ Homes

Target: Paul Souza, Director of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Goal: Do not weaken habitat protections for endangered species.

Imagine someone destroying your house and all of your food sources, then claiming in court that they committed no wrongdoing because they did not intend to “harm” you directly. America’s leaders want to justify putting the country’s 1,300-plus endangered species in further peril using the same twisted logic. Despite the fact that thousands of species have gone extinct due largely to habitat loss – and despite the forecast that 40 percent of current endangered species will face extinction for the same reason in the coming years – the president’s political appointees at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service want to gut habitat protections provided under America’s half-century-old Endangered Species Act.

Since its inception, the law has prohibited any actions that “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect” animals at risk of extinction. The phrase “harm” has always included destruction to habitats resulting from mining, drilling, construction, logging, and other damaging activities. The Supreme Court even set a precedent by upholding this definition against legal challenges from special interests.

Except once again, this administration wants to upend decades of precedent and flout legal frameworks by omitting habitat loss from activities deemed “harmful.” They want to change this rule not for any sense of obligation to safeguard at-risk living beings but rather to pacify and clear roadblocks for business special interests. The public has limited time to comment on this proposal before it becomes official.

Sign the petition below to let your voice be heard in protest against this attack on already-vulnerable wildlife.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Director Souza,

Habitat loss will drive 40 percent of extinctions in the future. This devastating loss of home and sustenance has already forever deprived the planet of much of its once-rich biodiversity. But habitat destruction is the monster with tentacles, because its reach will spread far beyond the living beings it directly impacts. As ecosystems crumble at the most fundamental level, humans will feel the effects in the form of lost food sources, lost economic opportunities, and lost irreplaceable natural beauty.

No greater “harm” exists. Millions of acres of land and 99 percent of at-risk species have been saved because of the enduring strength of the Endangered Species Act. Do not sacrifice America’s most vulnerable places and lifeforms for short-term gains.  If you do not protect the Endangered Species Act and all that it embodies, the long-term loss will be far more consequential.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Agricultural Research Service