Date: 4/23/25 7:16 am From: Peter Saracino <petersaracino...> Subject: [cayugabirds-l] 🌎 STAND UP for the Endangered Species Act this Earth Day
From the folks at the International Crane Foundation, but certainly a MAJOR
concern for lovers of endangered species everywhere.
Please consider contacting your elected representatives.
Pete Saracino
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: International Crane Foundation <info...>
Date: Tue, Apr 22, 2025, 5:30 PM
Subject: 🌎 STAND UP for the Endangered Species Act this Earth Day
To: <petersaracino...>
Last week, the Trump Administration proposed a rule change that would
profoundly weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the most important law
for protecting and conserving threatened plants and animals in our country. We
believe this change would be catastrophic for Endangered Whooping Cranes,
as well as countless other species, and their habitats.
Signed into law in 1973—the same year as the International Crane Foundation
was established—the ESA is a keystone of conservation success. It is
credited with saving 99 percent of the species it protects, like the
Endangered Whooping Crane, which was part of the first cohort of species
protected by the law.
Despite its overwhelming success and public support, the ESA has been
sharply criticized by those who want to increase mining, drilling, and
other land and water resources development that could negatively impact the
habitat requirements for endangered species.
In a rule proposed last week by the U.S. Departments of the Interior and
Commerce, the administration seeks to redefine a single word in the ESA—
“harm”—to mean direct mortality only and not include loss of habitat. This
would rescind the regulatory definition of harm and completely alter what
it means to harm imperiled plants and animals.
The proposed new definition of “harm” states that species are protected
only from intentional killing or injury, such as through hunting or
trapping, and not from the degradation or loss of habitat that plants and
animals need to survive. By emphasizing that harm must be intentional, the
change also allows for killing or injury to endangered plants and animals
by those who did not purposely seek to cause harm. Further, this change
could result in the loss of our ability to effectively site energy
resources, such as large transmission lines, to accommodate endangered
species' migratory pathways.
In the 1940s, only 21 Whooping Cranes remained in the wild due to
unregulated hunting and massive habitat loss. Today, there are more than
690 wild Whooping Cranes, largely due to these vital legal protections and
reintroduction efforts, such as those we lead today. However, the species
remains endangered and still needs our help and legal protections.
With this proposed order, freshwater diversions, wetland drainage, land
development, powerline collisions, and other disturbances at key nesting,
feeding, and roosting sites are expected to increase with this proposed
order. Additionally, we are concerned about proposals that may create
infinite loopholes and legal escapes for anyone who shoots a crane, by
allowing them to claim they didn’t mean to do it and requiring proof beyond
a reasonable doubt that the shooting was intentional, which can be
challenging to establish.
The International Crane Foundation is dedicated to protecting Whooping
Cranes and the wetlands they depend on. Now, we need your help to secure
their future and the future of many other species.
