Former federal officials call foul on Trump’s endangered species action

A coalition of former federal officials have come out against continued Trump administration changes to the Endangered Species Act. 

Seven former officials from top leadership at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a joint statement Friday against White House efforts to exempt companies from accountability for incidental deaths of endangered species that occur in the course of economic activity. 

The bipartisan collection of former officials led the agencies in charge of executing the Endangered Species Act over the course of four presidential administrations. 

“We haven’t always seen eye to eye. But when you’ve spent your career watching species come back from the edge, you develop a clear sense of what keeps wildlife alive,” the coalition said in a statement. 

“Stripping habitat protections and eliminating accountability for death of endangered species will lead to the extinction of some of America’s most iconic wildlife,” the officials added.

Their statement comes after the New York Times reported on an internal memo sent to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field offices that redefines what it means to “take” an animal on the endangered species list. 

Similar attempts to exempt industry from accidental deaths of endangered species under previous administrations were found to be unlawful.

The same seven officials have previously raised concerns about the administration’s changes to how the Endangered Species Act is interpreted by federal agencies, saying habitat destruction would no longer count as harm to an endangered species. 

The group includes:

•  Daniel Ashe, former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director under President Barack Obama administration
• Jamie Rappaport Clark, former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director under President Bill Clinton 
• Janet Coit, former NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries under President Joe Biden
• H. Dale Hall, former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director under President George W. Bush
• Eileen Sobeck, former NOAA assistant administrator for fisheries under the Obama administration,
•  Martha Williams, former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director under the Biden administration
• Steven Williams,  former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director under the Bush Administration

Louisiana has a variety of plant and animal species protected by the Endangered Species Act living in habitats around the state. This includes creatures like the Dusky Gopher frog, Fat Pocketbook mussel and Pallid Sturgeon.