20-05-2025
Bonta sends letter to Trump over Endangered Species Act
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — California Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote a letter challenging the Trump administration after an executive order takes aim at the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
In a move to significantly deregulate the ESA, the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing the removal of the term 'harm,' which can mean direct harm to an animal, or an indirect harm to that animal through habitat modification that kills or injures a species by significantly impairing essential behavior patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering.
'For people who like alligators, manatees, eagles, condors, humpback whales, blue whales. All of these species have benefited from the ESA over the years, and a lot of those species have recovered because of the protections that we have afforded them,' said Dr. Lyall Bellquist, a marine biologist and marine fisheries expert.
Dr. Bellquist says the removal of the single word could have wide spreading effects across every ecosystem in the U.S.
'You can also do an enormous amount of harm to a species by impacting them indirectly through their habitats and ecosystems that they depend on for feeding migration, reproduction etc.,' Dr. Bellquist said.
FOX 5/KUSI reached out to Fish and Wildlife Services to ask about why they wanted to alter the Endangered Species Act after 52 years, but they have not returned our calls.
'In these sorts of situations developers and industry, as you expect, tend to be focused on the bottom dollar,' Dr. Bellquist said.
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