{"id":7069486,"date":"2026-09-29T01:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T01:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/animal\/bipartisan-former-wildlife-agency-leaders-defend-longstanding-endangered-species-act-harm-definition\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T01:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T01:03:10","slug":"bipartisan-former-wildlife-agency-leaders-defend-longstanding-endangered-species-act-harm-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7069486","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan Former Wildlife Agency Leaders Defend Longstanding Endangered Species Act &#8220;Harm&#8221; Definition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seven former leaders of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries have sent a letter to Interior Secretary Douglas Burgum and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urging the administration to withdraw its recent rollback of the Endangered Species Act\u2019s definition of \u201charm.\u201d<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/endangeredorg-my.sharepoint.com\/personal\/jewel_endangered_org\/Documents\/Microsoft%20Copilot%20Chat%20Files\/ESA%20Harm%20Rule%20Letter%20Former%20Directors.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bipartisan group, whose service spans Democratic and Republican administrations, argues that excluding habitat destruction from the definition of \u201charm\u201d would undermine one of the law\u2019s most important protections for endangered wildlife. They warn that species do not disappear only when individual animals are killed, but also when the places they need to feed, migrate, breed, and raise their young are destroyed.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/endangeredorg-my.sharepoint.com\/personal\/jewel_endangered_org\/Documents\/Microsoft%20Copilot%20Chat%20Files\/ESA%20Harm%20Rule%20Letter%20Former%20Directors.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In their letter, the former officials state that habitat loss and fragmentation are among the leading causes of species decline and extinction and that Congress intended the Endangered Species Act to protect both species and the ecosystems on which they depend.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Administration is arguing that you can protect endangered animals without protecting the places they need to survive,\u201d the letter states. \u201cFifty years of science and common sense say otherwise.\u201d<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/endangeredorg-my.sharepoint.com\/personal\/jewel_endangered_org\/Documents\/Microsoft%20Copilot%20Chat%20Files\/ESA%20Harm%20Rule%20Letter%20Former%20Directors.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The signatories include former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Directors Daniel Ashe, Jamie Rappaport Clark, H. Dale Hall, Martha Williams, and Steven Williams, along with former NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrators Janet Coit and Eileen Sobeck.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/endangeredorg-my.sharepoint.com\/personal\/jewel_endangered_org\/Documents\/Microsoft%20Copilot%20Chat%20Files\/ESA%20Harm%20Rule%20Letter%20Former%20Directors.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The letter was also highlighted by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/09\/trumps-endangered-species-rollback-raises-specter-of-extinction-01069503\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Politico<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, underscoring the growing concern among former federal wildlife leaders, conservationists, and legal experts about the consequences of weakening habitat protections under the Endangered Species Act.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.endangered.org\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ESA-Harm-Rule-Letter-Former-Directors.pdf\"><b>Read the full letter here.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seven former leaders of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries have sent a letter to Interior Secretary Douglas Burgum and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urging the administration to withdraw its recent rollback of the Endangered Species Act\u2019s definition of \u201charm.\u201d\u00a0 The bipartisan group, whose service spans Democratic and Republican administrations, argues that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7069487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11766],"tags":[7622,5353,31247,3767,16936,7681,7027,24643,17389,13324,13203,9638],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7069486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal","tag-act","tag-agency","tag-bipartisan","tag-blog","tag-defend","tag-definition","tag-endangered","tag-harm","tag-leaders","tag-longstanding","tag-species","tag-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bipartisan Former Wildlife Agency Leaders Defend Longstanding Endangered Species Act &quot;Harm&quot; 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