Restore the Endangered Species Act

On behalf of special interests who stood for profit, the Trump administration had made sweeping attacks on the Endangered Species Act’s purpose that curtailed its power to prevent extinction and promote recovery — and Earthjustice attorneys fought back in court. Now, we need the Biden administration to hear from us loud and clear that it must throw out all the Trump administration-era rollbacks and use this opportunity to strengthen protections in a time of escalating crisis.  

In the coming decades, a million of the Earth’s species face the possibility of extinction due to climate change, pollution, and habitat loss. Even species that are not yet on the brink will face huge population declines. This extinction crisis means fewer pollinators for agriculture, depleted fisheries, and disappearing places like thriving rivers, wetlands, and old-growth forests. 

The Endangered Species Act is wildly popular and effective. It has prevented extinctions, recovered imperiled plants and animals, and protected the habits they need to survive. Ninety-nine percent of species that have received protection under the Act — including bald eagles, Florida manatees, and gray wolves — have been spared from extinction. 

Humans are not isolated from the natural environment, and what happens to other creatures affects our own existence, too.  

We need the Biden administration to fully undo the damage done to the Endangered Species Act.