News brief

Trump targets endangered species protection. The Trump administration plans to eliminate habitat protections for threatened species. Environmentalists say the move would lead to the extinction of endangered species because of logging, mining, and other activities. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service said in a proposed rule issued April 16 that habitat modification should not be considered “harm” – a key definition in the Endangered Species Act – because it is not the same as intentionally targeting a species. Drew Caputo, an attorney at Earthjustice, said the proposal “threatens a half-century of progress in protecting and restoring endangered species.”

When people alter the natural world, animals are forced to adapt. Sometimes, a solution they discover may itself be threatened, requiring humans to tackle the problem anew.