Currently, for example, the law defines a threatened species as one “likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.” But for years the definition of “foreseeable future” has been vague.
Under the proposed changes, the federal government will for the first time create a definition. According to the Interior Department, it will “make it clear that it extends only as far as they can reasonably determine that both the future threats and the species’ response to those threats are probable.”
Bob Dreher, senior vice president for conservation programs at Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group, said that move puts climate change in the cross hairs. “If they define it narrowly, then they’ll close their eyes to the fact that 30 years down the road polar bears will be endangered due to sea-level rise,” he said.
Another significant change, which has been rumored since April when a proposal was posted to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, affects what is known as the “Removal of Blanket Section 4(d) Rule.”
The proposal would alter how the Endangered Species Act deals with animals that are categorized as “threatened,” or one level below “endangered.” Endangered species are at risk of extinction throughout much of their range, whereas threatened species are likely to become endangered in the near future.
The Section 4(d) rule requires agencies to automatically extend protections to threatened species that mirror those of endangered species. Changing that rule, which is what the title of the proposal suggests is being considered, could roll back some of those protections.
Richard B. Stewart, a professor of environmental law at New York University, said the logic for the Section 4(d) rule was that “if you wait until the species’ numbers are actually small enough that it’s going to become extinct, it may be difficult or too late” to save it. The threatened list, he said, is designed “to anticipate a species is sort of going downhill sufficiently in advance, and protect it.”
