Trump administration moves to cut protections for endangered species

The Trump administration has issued a sweeping new directive that could see the unintentional killing of protected wildlife no longer treated as unlawful.

A memo from Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) director Brian Nesvik distributed to FWS field offices earlier this week called for a reinterpretation of "take," a term relating to the pursuit, killing or capture of a species under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The definition would now be altered to "affirmative conduct intentionally directed against a particular animal or animals," effectively excluding incidental harm caused by economic activities from being considered "take."

"A vessel that inadvertently strikes a whale has not taken it, because the vessel's course was not set against the whale," the memo says, quoting former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in a 1995 case. "Felling a tree is not a take of the bats roosting in it unless the tree is felled for the purpose of killing or capturing them".

The document, which was obtained and shared by the Center for Biological Diversity, comes after a previous rule change that rescinded the definition of "harm" under the ESA.

The Interior Department confirmed the memo’s authenticity to the AFP news agency.

"The memorandum accurately reflects the US Fish and Wildlife Service's guidance for implementing the Endangered Species Act following the final rule rescinding the regulatory definition of 'harm,'" the department said.

"Under the guidance, the ESA's prohibition on 'take' continues to prohibit conduct including harassing, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing or collecting protected wildlife," it added.

The move has drawn strong criticism from environmental groups.

Brett Hartl, the government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the move "stabs at the very heart of the Endangered Species Act by giving federal approval to the killing of some of America’s most beloved wildlife."

"The Trump administration is desperate to annihilate environmental protections, but this incredibly radical measure is both cruel and profoundly unlawful. Killing endangered wildlife is illegal, whether that’s your purpose or not," Hartl added in a press release.