The Trump Administration’s recent changes to the Endangered Species Act has been divisive in the public forum, to say the least. Adding to the voices in support of the updates is American Agri-Women, which sees these new steps as a positive thing for conservation and for agriculture. American Agri-Women — a national coalition of farm, ranch, and agri-business women — also says it believes the changes will build trust between rural America and the Department of Interior and its agencies.
“We depend upon natural resources every day of our lives, and we make it a priority to conserve and protect both the land and the species that depend upon it for their habitat. We are appreciative that this administration is working with American farmers and ranchers to promote common sense values,” says American Agri-Women President Jeanette Lombardo.
“This administration’s appointments of real experts of natural resource management within the Department of Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and particularly within the Bureau of Land Management, have re-energized our enthusiasm with the hope that rural Americans will be able to continue to produce the most abundant and the safest food in the world on both private and public lands. Nothing is more vital to our country’s security than that of a guaranteed, adequate, and safe food supply,” says Lombardo.
The revisions to the regulations, which were finalized earlier this week by the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service, clarify that the standards for delisting and reclassification of a species consider the same five statutory factors as the listing of a species in the first place. This requirement ensures that all species proposed for delisting or reclassification receive the same careful analysis to determine whether or not they meet the statutory definitions of a threatened or endangered species as is done for determining whether to add a species to the list.
