Protect Endangered Species

Dear Secretary Burgum and Director Nesvik,

I wish to express my opposition to the following proposed rules, which would roll back existing protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), specifically:

"Regulations Pertaining to Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants" (FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0029)

"Interagency Cooperation Regulations" (FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0044)

"Regulations for Designating Critical Habitat" (FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0048)

"Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat" (FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0039)

These changes being proposed by the agency would make it more difficult to designate critical habitat for endangered species, limit experts' ability to protect threatened species based on foreseeable threats, allow economic impacts to be prioritized in listing decisions instead of best available science, and revoke important protections for threatened species. Individually and collectively, these proposed changes would jeopardize the health and survival of our nation's most imperiled wildlife and weaken the regulatory framework that has ensured the success and effectiveness of the ESA over the past five decades.

The US has been a global leader in wildlife conservation in large part thanks to the foundational success of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Since its enactment in 1973, the ESA has proven incredibly effective, protecting hundreds of plants and animals and preventing the extinction of over 99% of listed species, including the bald eagle, the humpback whale, and the black-footed ferret. This bedrock legislation is critical for the survival of a multitude of endangered and threatened species across our nation, as well as around the world. The protections the ESA provides to these species and their habitats should not be weakened, as would be the case under the agency's proposed rules.

America's wildlife is one of its greatest natural assets, and as nature and wildlife come under increasing pressure, we should not be undermining the critical protections that Congress wisely provided under the ESA over 50 years ago.

I urge the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to maintain ESA regulations in their current form and not implement the proposed rules above, which would make species listings, habitat designation, and decisions around the how best to protect endangered and threatened wildlife more difficult and less scientific.