The Trump Administration has proposed new changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Some conservation organizations oppose the proposed changes to the ESA because they may harm the conservation of species, especially in Florida.
Elise Bennett is the Florida and Caribbean director of the Center for Biological Diversity. She said these new changes will make it very hard to protect every species and ecosystem across the country.
She said these changes will reset how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can reasonably assess what species are at risk, what is threatening them, and how conservation organizations can help.
The Center for Biological Diversity said in a press release that the alligator snapping turtle, California spotted owls, Florida panthers, monarch butterflies, saltmarsh sparrow, sunflower sea star and the wolverine will be in jeopardy of extinction.
“It’s so important, you know, that’s why we’re pointing out that many of these regulations are unlawful. They’re contrary to the Endangered Species Act, and they could have really massive impacts on everyday Americans who care about going to wild places and just care about having a healthy ecosystem to depend on,” Bennett said.
Proposed change to Section 4:
As of right now, Bennett said under the Act, a species doesn’t get any protection until it’s added to a list of endangered and threatened species. This is done by considering the best available science about these species and their threats.
“One thing the statute says is that these decisions should be made solely on the best available science, and that means we’re only looking at the species and the impact of the species. We shouldn’t be looking at economic considerations of impacts to industry and the statue is quite clear on what that means,” Bennett said.
She said that if you start thinking about the impacts of water bottle industries, groundwater pumping and agriculture, a species would have a difficult time to get listed.
Proposed change to Section 4b:
Bennett said the Trump Administration is trying to change the way agencies would protect habitat for species.
“We call it critical habitat under the law, and critical habitat is habitat that’s essential for the survival and recovery of the species,” she said.
Bennett said under the new proposal, it would prohibit the designation or protection of habitat for species threatened by climate change or other threats that can’t be addressed by agency permitting.
“If you think about the Florida Keys, we have the key deer, the Florida Keys mole skink, the key tree cactus, and many other plans and animals that are existentially threatened by sea level rise driven by climate change,” Bennett said.
She said that if they can’t protect areas of habitat were climate change is coming, species would have no chance of survival.
The new regulation will also take away the ability to protect habitat outside the species occupied range.
Proposed change to Section 7:
Bennett said the current language, in this section, allows agencies to make reasonable and reliable predictions of the future of a species. But the new changes will affect how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can look at the future of a species
“They would rest this entire determination on the agency’s ability to reasonably determine what threats are and how the species will respond. The language suggests that if they can’t determine for sure what the threats are, or if they don’t know what the species likely response is, they can’t do anything to help,” Bennet said.
She said organizations will have to sit and wait as the species continues to die off before being able to help.
“The longer we wait, if we wait till there’s only a handful of these species left in the wild, then you have to have captive breeding programs. It’s really expensive and there’ more risk of failure,” Bennett said.
Overall impact on Florida if changes pass
“The major concern right now is that it will be a whole lot harder to protect each and every species, but also entire ecosystems, that are across the country but especially here in Florida,” Bennett said.
An example she used is how her organization is petitioning to list Florida Manatees as endangered. If these changes pass, they are concerned the manatees will not receive strong protections from activities that kill, harm and harass them.
The Center for Biological Diversity said in a press release that the alligator snapping turtle, California spotted owls, Florida panthers, monarch butterflies, saltmarsh sparrow, sunflower sea star and the wolverine will be at jeopardy of extinction if the regulations pass.
“By gutting these laws, the only people this is helping are the industry.”
Bennett’s organization, along with others, are asking for an extension to review the proposed regulations. The deadline for public comment is December 22.
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This article appears in Dec. 04 – 10, 2025.