Feb 12, 2025

Contact: Susan Holmes- (202)329-1553 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, reports emerged that Donald Trump has nominated former Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nevsik as the next Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Nesvik’s nomination has been referred to the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the federal agency charged with protecting endangered species and migratory birds and manages nearly 860 million acres of national wildlife refuges. Roughly 8,000 people work to carry out its mission to “conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats…”

Statement by Susan Holmes, Executive Director 

“Nesvik’s nomination is devastating news for wildlife and endangered species. During his time as Director of Wyoming Fish and Game, he repeatedly called for weakening the Endangered Species Act, oversaw a 50% increase in hunting tags for mountain lions and black bears, and testified before the U.S. Congress that grizzly bears should lose endangered species protections, “by whatever means is necessary.” Last year, his Commission received global condemnation for imposing only a minimal fine when a Wyoming man used a snowmobile to run down and brutally torture a young female wolf. There is no doubt that if confirmed as Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he will do the Trump Administration’s bidding to advance unchecked drilling, mining, and logging of fragile wildlife habitats. He will sacrifice our precious endangered species for industry profits at every turn. It will be a war on wildlife that will wreak havoc on the protection and recovery of species from grizzlies to sea turtles to monarch butterflies.”

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Tara Thornton, tthornton@endangered.org, (207) 504-2705

 Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) today announced its intention to remove Endangered Species Act protections for all gray wolves in the United States that are currently protected. The Endangered Species Coalition decried the move as political, and urged the Trump Administration not to abandon the still-recovering species.

“Wolves have only been restored in a tiny fraction of their historic and suitable range,” said Leda Huta, Executive Director of the Endangered Species Coalition. “Wolf recovery could be one of America’s greatest wildlife conservation success stories if the Fish and Wildlife Service would finish the job it started.”

There were once up to 2 million gray wolves living in North America, but the animals had been driven to near-extinction in the lower 48 states by the early 1900s. After passage of the federal Endangered Species Act in 1973 and protection of the wolf as endangered, federal recovery programs resulted in the rebound of wolf populations in limited parts of the country. Gray wolves returned on their own to the Western Great Lakes region and northwest Montana and were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, where they have made a successful comeback. However, wolves are still struggling in areas of Oregon and Washington, while only a few have made it to California or the southern Rockies, where substantial areas of suitable habitat exist. Roughly 5,500 wolves currently live in the continental United States – a fraction of the species’ historic numbers.

“Without the protections afforded by the Endangered Species Act, gray wolves would never have recovered in the places where they are now,” said Huta. “By removing protections across the country, the Trump Administration is essentially abandoning all efforts to restore this iconic American species to millions of acres of wild habitat.”

A similar proposal in 2013 outraged Americans: one million citizens submitted comments and 200 business leaders signed a letter in opposition to the plan to strip endangered species protections from gray wolves.

The wolf delisting notice was published in the Federal Register and will include a period for public comment, after which the rule can be finalized by the Trump Administration.

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According to Jonathan B Jarvis, who served as the 18th Director of the National Parks Service, “Leaving the parks open without these essential staff is equivalent to leaving the Smithsonian museums open without any staff to protect the priceless artefacts.”

Our National Parks are vital in that these public lands provide essential habitat for iconic threatened and endangered species. The National Parks Conservation Association, in partnership with Defenders of Wildlife, created an interactive map displaying threatened and endangered species:

Allowing parks to remain open during the shutdown reflects the Trump administration pattern of disregard for the intrinsic value of public lands and demonstrates both a lack of leadership and stewardship.

Please act now to support park closure during the government shutdown.

The post Protect Our National Parks appeared first on Endangered Species Coalition.

“The Interior Department under Secretary Zinke has been especially cozy with the industries that are harming the very wildlife the Department is supposed to protect,” said Leda Huta, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition. “If the Trump Administration has its way, the new regulations will put these species on a fast track to extinction.”

Climate change and habitat loss are two of the biggest drivers of the decline of species like the Pacific leatherback sea turtle, the Humboldt marten, and the western yellow-billed cuckoo. In spite of that, the Trump Administration’s proposed a series of regulations last summer that would weaken the Endangered Species Act. The proposed rules would:

Extinction Plan: Ten Species Imperiled by the Trump Administration:

Endangered Species Coalition’s member groups nominated species for the report. A committee of distinguished scientists reviewed the nominations, and decided which species should be included in the final report. The full report, along with photos and additional species information can be viewed and downloaded at https://endangered.org/extinction-plan.

Although the Administration and some members of Congress have been seeking to weaken the Act, public opinion research indicates that the law continues to maintain broad, bipartisan, public support. A 2015 poll conducted by Tulchin Research found that 90 percent of American voters across all political, regional and demographic lines support the Endangered Species Act.

The Endangered Species Act was a landmark conservation law that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support: 92-0 in the Senate, and 394-4 in the House, and signed by President Richard Nixon 45 years ago on December 28. In 2017, more than 400 organizations signed a letter to members of Congress opposing efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act, noting the law has a 99 percent success rate, including some of the country’s most exciting wildlife recoveries, like the bald eagles, humpback whales, American alligators, Channel Island foxes, Tennessee purple coneflowers, and more.

Scientific consensus indicates that we are in the sixth wave of extinction. The main tool in the United States to battle this human-caused crisis is the Endangered Species Act, which has been very effective in keeping species from sliding into extinction.

The Endangered Species Coalition produces a “Top 10” report annually, focusing on a different theme each year. Previous years’ reports are also available on the Coalition’s website.

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“Under the guise of “reform,” we are seeing a full-on assault on imperiled wildlife and the Endangered Species Act. From these Trump-Zinke administrative regulations, to a Rep. Rob Bishop-led barrage of bills in the House, to a draft bill to undermine the Act by Senator Barrasso in the Senate, this is all part and parcel of the Trump administration’s industry and polluter-friendly deregulatory agenda.

The Endangered Species Act is our nation’s most effective law for protecting wildlife in danger of extinction, and has prevented more than 99 percent of listed species from going extinct. The Endangered Species Act already allows for flexibility in protecting endangered wildlife and requires that federal agencies work together with state, tribal and local officials work to prevent extinction. We know that strong majorities, across the political spectrum, support the Endangered Species Act and want wildlife decisions to be made by biologists and wildlife professionals, not politicians in Congress. (2015 Tulchin poll)

Rather than making detrimental changes to a law that works, Congress and the Administration should improve the law’s implementation by fully funding recovery efforts for endangered species.”

More info: 

Although some members of Congress have been seeking to weaken the Act, public opinion research indicates that the law continues to maintain broad, bipartisan, public support. A 2015 poll conducted by Tulchin Research found that 90 percent of American voters across all political, regional and demographic lines support the Endangered Species Act.

The Endangered Species Act was a landmark conservation law that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support: 92-0 in the Senate, and 394-4 in the House. In 2017, more than 400 organizations signed a letter to members of Congress opposing efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act, noting the law has a 99 percent success rate, including some of the country’s most exciting wildlife recoveries, like the bald eagles, humpback whales, American alligators, Channel Island foxes, Tennessee purple coneflowers, and more.

Scientific consensus indicates that we are in the sixth wave of extinction. The main tool in the United States to battle this human-caused crisis is the Endangered Species Act, which has been very effective in keeping species from sliding into extinction.

Submit your comments opposing this plan today before the September 24th deadline.

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