Manatees, crocodile, sea turtles may lose protections with Trump plan

The Trump administration has proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act to reduce federal regulations.
One proposal would eliminate automatic protections for threatened species, known as the “blanket rule.”
Another change would allow economic factors to be considered when designating critical habitats for species.

The Trump administration has proposed rolling back regulations that strengthen protections for threatened and endangered species like manatees.

The Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Nov. 19 four proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act as President Donald Trump tries to reduce what he calls burdensome federal regulations for businesses. One proposed rule would eliminate the “blanket rule,” which automatically applies endangered species protections to threatened species. Another would change the considerations for designating critical habitats for a species’ survival.

“These revisions end years of legal confusion and regulatory overreach, delivering certainty to states, tribes, landowners and businesses while ensuring conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement.

The proposed rules are open for public comment until Dec. 22.

What species could be most impacted by proposed rules?

According to the Endangered Species Coalition, which opposes the proposed rules, hundreds of vulnerable plants and wildlife could be more at risk of extinction if they pass. The Defenders of Wildlife also argued that another proposed rule on interagency cooperation could hurt specific species. The coalition, its partners and the defenders mentioned these species as being more at risk:

Monarch butterflies
Sea turtles
Manatees
Wolverines
Northern spotted owl
Cook Inlet beluga whale

“America’s imperiled wildlife remains at an uncertain crossroads, with one road pointing toward extinction and the other toward recovery,” Andrew Bowman, president and CEO at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s proposals announced today seek to undermine critical portions of the Endangered Species Act and will make recovery for many of those species that much more difficult.”

Manatees, panthers among Florida’s endangered

Florida’s diverse ecosystems are home to more than 100 federally-designated vulnerable species. Perhaps most famous is the Florida manatee, a large, gray aquatic mammal native to the region. They typically grow to be nine to 10 feet long and weigh approximately 1,000 pounds. Manatees were classified as an endangered species before its population reached more than 7,500 and it was reclassified as threatened in 2017.

Here are some other species in Florida deemed threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

American crocodile (threatened)
Wood stork (threatened)
Florida panther (endangered)
Key Largo cotton mouse (endangered)
Key deer (endangered)
Green sea turtle (threatened)

Allowing economic, national security to be a factor in critical habitat

The ESA provides regulations for permits for oil, gas, mining, electric transmission and other enterprises on federal lands, according to Reuters. Two of the proposed rules specifically mention allowing economic factors to be a part of the considerations for critical habitats.

The rules would restore 2019 and 2020 regulations that were then replaced with bolstered protections under the Biden administration.

“Trump’s attacks on the Endangered Species Act seriously misread the room,” Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles said in a statement. “Most people are not going to allow the sacrifice of our natural world to a bunch of billionaires and corporate interests.”

The ‘blanket rule’ and the difference between endangered and threatened species

Another proposed rule would end an automatic protection for threatened species known as the “blanket rule.” An endangered species is at risk of extinction, and a threatened species is likely to become endangered in the near future.

The blanket rule gives endangered species protections to threatened species, unless a species-specific exception was determined by a federal agency. The proposed rule would flip that and require protections to be made for each threatened species.

The proposed rule “ensures that protections are necessary and advisable to conserve each species without imposing unnecessary restrictions on others,” according to the Interior Department.

Contributing: Reuters

Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X (Twitter), Bluesky and TikTok.