Endangered Species Act Under Threat?

52 years ago, the Endangered Species Act was enacted in 1973. For decades it’s protected vulnerable plant and animal species by making the action of “taking” a listed species, with “take” meaning to “kill, harm, or harass,” illegal. The regulatory definition of “harm”, expanded by the Fish and Wildlife Service, includes habitat modification that directly or indirectly impairs a species’ ability to perform their essential behaviors like feeding, breeding, or sheltering. And that’s a rational line of thought; species are inextricably connected to their habitats – they cannot survive without them. Globally and here in the US, habitat loss/degradation is the leading cause of extinction for most species.

This individual was photographed in Cape Coral, Florida, which hosts the largest population of burrowing owls in the state. Locals have contributed to this species success by building attractive perching structures and dens in their own yards to provide habitat, and the owls have taken full advantage; a census count reported 7008 owls in 2025, compared to 5200 in 2024.

In the past five years, I’ve had the opportunity and pleasure to photograph 11 species of endangered/threatened plants and animals, and all of them are as imperiled as they are because of habitat loss. The very first species I attempted to document, the Karner Blue butterfly, may very well have become extirpated in Ohio, having not been seen in several years at its last known location. The Karner caterpillars feed solely on blue lupine, a plant that's been declining in Ohio for years as its habitat, sandy grassland, has been lost to development. After two consecutive seasons where I was unable to find a single Karner, I traveled to Albany, New York, where the species has a small stronghold, and was able to photograph a handful. But without legal protection, these one-inch butterflies and so many other species face overwhelming danger, and a recent proposal to amend the ESA threatens to jeopardize their chances further.

In April 2025, the Trump administration, through the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service, moved to rescind the FWS’s previously expanded definition of what constitutes as “harm” under the ESA, a move that would significantly weaken protections for countless endangered species (and in November 2025, proposed 4 other rules that also rollback recent protections added in the last 4-5 years).

Six of the seven species of sea turtle are endangered or threatened. They face a myriad of threats including climate change, pollution, habitat loss due to development and shrinking coastlines, and being caught as bycatch in commercial fishing operations.

Why the sudden redefining? If corporations, developers and other parties that would be affected are no longer subject to oversight and no longer required to consider an animal’s habitat as essential to its survival, all loss of species thereafter is labeled as incidental and not punishable by law. This opens up untold acres of land across the US to mining, logging, drilling, and industrial development, and continues this administration's MO of profit above all else.

Habitat loss as wetlands are converted for development or bisected with roads is largely responsible for the decline of Blanding's turtles.

Most species of lepidoptera are monophagous and can only feed on a specific species or family of plants, including the monarch, which consumes members of the milkweed family. Milkweed habitat - grasslands and prairies primarily - across the US is cleared at a rate of 1,000,000+ acres per year, largely for farmland where crops like soy, corn, and wheat are grown to feed livestock. The pesticides sprayed on these crops also drifts onto nearby milkweed where it poisons and kills caterpillars.

A Michigan study spanning 15 years recently concluded that development is forcing massasugas to inbreed.

Since European settlement, over 90% of wetlands in Ohio, where this individual was photographed, have been lost.