Doug Burgum

The Trump administration redefined how the federal government will interpret a key word in the Endangered Species Act, narrowing the protections afforded to wildlife in the bedrock environmental law. The move focuses on the word “harm” in the ESA, which prohibits injuring or killing any species that the federal government determines to be endangered or threatened. The Interior Department announced that the change had been finalized, but the regulation was not yet in the Federal Register. Under the change laid out last year, regulators with the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries will no longer interpret “harm” of a protected species to include modifications to a plant or animal’s habitat that could be detrimental to its survival. Trump administration officials have argued that the more expansive interpretation — which has been in place nearly as long as the 1973 law — does not meet the original intent of the Endangered Species Act.