PROTECTING WILDLIFE HABITAT
For more than 50 years the federal government has determined that the Endangered Species Act not only protects certain animals from being shot, trapped or injured but also protects their habitats and ”their ability to eat, shelter or breed.” For example, piping plovers need undisturbed beaches to breed. If a property owner develops a beach used by plovers it can prevent them from nesting. Scientists have determined that habitat modification or degradation is “the top driver of biodiversity loss worldwide.” Protection of habitats benefits all of us: we don’t want to live in a paved-over or degraded environment.
Fossil fuel companies, agricultural interests and land developers have pressured the federal government to change the habitat protection rules, and the Trump administration has complied. Environmental justice has taken another blow.
Source: The New York Times, 7/10/26