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BILLINGS, Mont. — <\/span>The U.S. Interior Department on Friday canceled a rule meant to protect plants and animals that are determined to be threatened with extinction, the latest step by President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to dismantle key provisions<\/a> of the landmark Endangered Species Act<\/a> at the behest of industry.<\/p>\n Instead of receiving automatic protections, imperiled species<\/a> will need individualized protection plans once they are added to the threatened species list. That’s a potentially lengthy process in which companies could seek exemptions for oil and gas drilling, mining and other development where those species live.<\/p>\n Opponents said it would make it harder to save wildlife that\u2019s awaiting federal protections and in danger of disappearing, such as monarch butterflies<\/a> and alligator snapping turtles<\/a>.<\/p>\n Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement that the Endangered Species Act had been used for too long \u201cto stop almost any new project in America, driving up costs for families, weakening our competitiveness, and undermining our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSuccess should be measured by species recovery and delisting, not by adding more species to the list,\u201d Burgum added.<\/p>\n A second change finalized Friday requires officials to analyze economic impacts when deciding whether habitat is critical to a species\u2019 survival. Critics say it gives corporations an opportunity to put their thumb on the scale so that officials will allow development in those areas.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re exempting certain industries that cause habitat destruction, in many instances you’ll be exempting the main threat to those species,\u201d said Noah Greenwald with the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity.<\/p>\n Officials made similar changes during Trump\u2019s first term but they were reversed<\/a> under former Democratic President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n The rules that gave what some consider \u201cblanket protections\u201d to threatened species were first adopted for wildlife in 1975 and for plants in 1977.<\/p>\n Two groups, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Property and Environment Research Center, sued the Biden administration in 2024 after officials restored the blanket protections rule. They argued the rule unfairly imposed the same restrictions on landowners when a species’ status improves from endangered, which is more dire, to threatened.<\/p>\n That removed incentives for landowners to participate in species recovery, said Jonathan Wood, vice president at the Montana-based research center.<\/p>\n Wood said the Trump administration’s approach allows officials to \u201cbetter reward progress and encourage proactive conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n There have been no species added<\/a> to the endangered or threatened lists in Trump\u2019s second term. By comparison, more than 20 species were added in Trump\u2019s first term, and about 60 during Biden\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n About 30 species are currently proposed to be listed as threatened. Besides monarchs and alligator snapping turtles, they include California spotted owls and various snakes, fish, clams and insects.<\/p>\n Changes to government policies for endangered plants and wildlife have come faster and extended further in Trump’s second term than in his first.<\/p>\n The administration in March exempted oil and gas drilling<\/a> in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said environmentalists\u2019 lawsuits threatened to hobble domestic energy supplies as the U.S. wages war against Iran.<\/p>\n Last week, Interior officials sharply narrowed the definition of what constitutes \u201charm\u201d to a species. The change would allow development on critical wildlife habitat so long as the animals themselves are not immediately killed or injured.<\/p>\n This week officials sharply reduced the amount of critical habitat in the U.S. Rocky Mountains designated for Canada lynx, forest dwelling wildcats<\/a> that are threatened by climate change and other pressures. <\/p>\n Also this week, Burgum said in a visit to Montana that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would turn over more management authority for grizzly bears to states where the bruins live. That’s been a longstanding priority for the Republican governors of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.<\/p>\n The Endangered Species Act is credited with bringing back iconic animals including the bald eagle<\/a> and American alligator<\/a> from the brink of extinction.<\/p>\n Burgum noted Friday that 97% of the species that have been given protections still have them. That\u2019s a frustration for Republican lawmakers who say species should be taken off the endangered and threatened lists more quickly once they\u2019ve recovered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n