Restore the Endangered Species Act

58,033

Supporters spoke up in this action

Delivery to the Biden administration

Action ended on March 28, 2024

What Happens Next

Thank you to all who took action! We’re grateful for your support.

What Was At Stake

It takes millions of years for species to evolve — and if we fail to protect our incredible, diverse fellow species from man-made threats, they can be lost in the blink of an eye.  

For 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has served as the last line of defense for countless species and habitats. Today, it is our strongest tool for tackling the worsening biodiversity crisis, and now the Biden administration is weighing regulations that could fully restore the Act to its full potential. 

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. 

A Mexican gray wolf.
The Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi)—the “lobo” of Southwestern lore—is the most genetically distinct lineage of wolves in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most endangered mammals in North America. (Nagel Photography / Shutterstock)

Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.