U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Northern California struck down the Trump-era rules, even as two wildlife agencies under President Joe Biden revise or repeal the regulations. The decision restores a number of protections under the Endangered Species Act — including some dating back to the 1970s — while reviews are completed. Environmental groups hailed the decision, which they said expedited necessary protections and critical habitat designations for threatened species, including salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The Tigar decision “spoke to species that desperately need comprehensive federal protection without compromise,” said Kristen Boyles, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice. “Endangered and threatened species cannot afford to wait under rules that do not protect them.” The court’s ruling comes as two federal agencies — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service — review five Endangered Species Act regulations finalized by President Donald Trump’s administration, including critical habitat designations and rules that require federal agencies to consult with wildlife or fisheries. services before taking actions that could affect threatened or endangered species. Fish and Wildlife also said it would reinstate the decades-old “catch-all rule,” which mandates additional protections for species newly classified as threatened. Those protections were removed under Trump. Critical habitat designations for threatened or endangered species can lead to restrictions on energy development, such as mining or oil drilling that could disturb a vulnerable species, while the consultation rule and a separate rule on the scope of proposed federal actions help in determining how far the government can go to protect endangered species. Under Trump, officials have withdrawn protections for the northern owl, gray wolves and other species, actions that Biden has promised to review. The Biden administration previously moved to reverse Trump’s decision to weaken enforcement of the century-old Migratory Bird Act, which made it harder to prosecute bird deaths caused by the energy industry. Overturning the bird law was among more than 150 business-friendly environmental actions that Trump and Biden want to review, revise or repeal, including last month’s withdrawal of a 2020 rule that limited lands and waters that could be classified as places where they are threatened. animals and plants could receive federal protection. A spokesman for the Interior Department, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, said Tuesday that the agency is reviewing the court’s decision. Fish and Wildlife, along with the Marine Fisheries Service, announced in June 2021 that it was reviewing Trump-era actions on endangered species. The reviews could take months or years to complete, officials said. Industry groups and Republicans in Congress have long viewed the Endangered Species Act as a barrier to economic growth and under Trump have successfully lobbied to weaken the law’s regulations. Environmental groups and Democratic-controlled states fought the moves in court, but many of those cases remained unresolved. Ryan Shannon, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, another environmental group, said he was “incredibly relieved” that the “terrible” Trump-era rules on endangered species were rejected by Oakland, Calif.-based Tigar, who was appointed the federal bench by former President Barack Obama. “I hope the Biden administration takes this opportunity to strengthen this critical law, rather than weaken it, in the face of the ongoing disappearance crisis,” Shannon said Tuesday. Rebecca Reilly of the Natural Resources Defense Council said the court order “ensures that the previous government’s ‘extinction package’ will be overturned”. She and other advocates called on the Biden administration to make sure the Endangered Species Act “can do its job: prevent the extinction of vulnerable species.”
