Ryan Zinke’s Interior Department proposes to significantly weaken the landmark law that saved the bald eagle… the 1973 Endangered Species Act. …In equal measure, it has been reviled by developers, ranchers, loggers and oil and gas interests for elevating the needs of plants and animals and the habitats necessary for their survival over the demands of commerce. …A suite of measures in the House and others in development in the Senate would, in aggregate, weaken the role that scientists play in deciding which species need help, while increasing the influence of state governments. …Individual species aside, the act’s habitat requirements have also produced great gains for ecosystems as a whole. A succession of inconspicuous birds listed as endangered or threatened — the spotted owl, the marbled murrelet, the coastal California gnatcatcher — has saved millions of acres of old growth forest and open space along the Pacific Coast from logging and commercial development.