Salem, Oregon – Oregon’s wildlife protections are heading to court, with state leaders arguing that an endangered animal cannot be saved if the place it needs to eat, breed and shelter is allowed to disappear.
Attorney General Dan Rayfield is filing two lawsuits challenging new federal rules that weaken key parts of the Endangered Species Act. The changes could make it easier for private companies and individuals to damage or destroy habitats used by threatened and endangered species.
“One of the things that makes Oregon a truly great place to live and visit is our natural environment, including our rich, vibrant habitats and animal species,” Rayfield said. “Protecting these spaces and the animals who call them home is about preserving our way of life for generations to come.”
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The first case targets the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to rescind the longstanding definition of “harm” under the law. For decades, that definition covered major habitat damage that disrupts breeding, feeding or shelter and ultimately kills or injures wildlife.
Oregon argues that narrowing the meaning of “harm” separates animals from the ecosystems they require to survive. Habitat loss remains the leading cause of species decline nationwide.
The second lawsuit challenges two additional changes adopted by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. One removes automatic federal safeguards from species newly listed as threatened. The other changes the process used to determine which places qualify as critical habitat.
Taken together, Rayfield argues, the rules leave vulnerable species and their habitats with far less protection than Congress intended when it enacted the ESA. Oregon also contends that the federal government violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
“Oregon’s natural landscapes and waters are the foundation of our rural economies and the ecosystems that define this state,” Governor Tina Kotek said. “While President Trump is doing everything in his power to roll back decades of longstanding habitat protections, Oregon will continue to fight back on every front, with everything we have, to protect our wildlife.”
Numerous federally listed species in Oregon depend on public lands. The state also became the first in the country to have a fish species removed from the endangered list because it had recovered under ESA regulations—a result officials cite as evidence that the law works when habitat is protected.
Oregon is bringing the cases alongside attorneys general from 19 other states and the District of Columbia.
