Approximately a quarter of the world’s freshwater organisms are at risk of extinction, and the world is losing freshwater species faster than land or ocean species. From the Colorado River, where the pikeminnow lives, to the North Fork of California’s Feather River, where the foothill yellow-legged frog calls home, rivers provide critical habitat for endangered fish, amphibians, insects, and birds that rely on them. Endangered freshwater species include unique freshwater mussels in the Southeast and culturally significant salmon in the Pacific Northwest, which in turn supports the Southern Resident Orcas in Puget Sound. In many places, endangered freshwater species are a keystone — supporting entire webs of life and bolstering the healthy rivers and creeks that we all know and love.
One of our nation’s landmark environmental laws that holds this delicate balance of nature together, the Endangered Species Act, is currently facing a new threat. A new rule from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would redefine what harming a species means under the Endangered Species Act by eliminating the protection against habitat destruction. This has been a longstanding protection that directly protects against one of the leading drivers of species extinction — habitat loss.
If this rule moves forward, the essential places that numerous endangered species use for feeding, breeding, sheltering, and surviving will be at risk. The ecosystems upstream and downstream that those species support will also be at risk, as well as areas that we humans depend on for clean drinking water and many other benefits.
The Endangered Species Act is currently facing a new threat
Tell the Administration to maintain the definition of harm to include the destruction of habitat, especially rivers, in the Endangered Species Act now!
Examples of rivers with endangered wildlife include:
- The Lower Missouri is home to piping plover, interior least tern, and pallid sturgeon
- The Puyallup River and South Fork of the Salmon River house Chinook salmon, steelhead, and bull trout
- The Columbia and Snake Rivers are home to thirteen salmon and steelhead runs that are listed as endangered
Without the protection afforded by the Endangered Species Act, these rivers as crucial habitat may be at increased risk of unfettered and unmitigated development, improper water allocation, and other inappropriate and environmentally unsound uses.
The current inclusion of what “harm” means in the Endangered Species Act has historically enabled dam removals that lead to restored habitat. The removal of the 160-year-old Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River in Maine was driven by the need to protect threatened and endangered species, including the shortnose sturgeon and Atlantic salmon. Since that river restoration project was completed in 1999, more than 2,000 other dams have been removed across the country for the benefit of wildlife and communities alike.
Attacks on habitat and wildlife protections are harmful, short-sighted, and out of step with what the American public wants. Abundant nature and wildlife are values that we all share and enjoy, no matter who we are or where we come from. Hunting and fishing are treasured traditions – not to mention a multi-million dollar industry – and depend on healthy rivers and ecosystems. The health and strength of our communities are directly related to the health of our rivers and waters. We must do more, not less, as a nation to protect our water wealth.
