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ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT (ESA) ROLLBACK PACKAGE – COMMENTS DUE DECEMBER 22, 2025
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT (ESA) ROLLBACK PACKAGE – COMMENTS DUE ON DECEMBER 22, 2025
Issue: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has issued four proposed rules to roll back Endangered Species Act protections. These proposals would:
• allow economic impacts to influence listing decisions;
• narrow the meaning of “foreseeable future,” limiting climate-related listings;
• reduce critical habitat designations and make exclusions easier;
• eliminate the blanket 4(d) rule so newly listed threatened species receive few or no automatic protections;
• and weaken Section 7 consultation requirements.
These rules could affect species such as the black-footed ferret, northern long-eared bat, piping plover, whooping crane, pallid sturgeon, western bumble bee, and various grassland birds.
Federal Register Notices (all published Nov 21, 2025):
Listing rule: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/21/2025-20549/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-listing-endangered-and-threatened-species-and
Critical habitat rule: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/21/2025-20552/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-regulations-pertaining-to-endangered-and-threatened
Section 7 consultation rule: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/21/2025-20554/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-interagency-consultation
4(d) rule: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/21/2025-20553/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-regulations-for-prohibitions-to-threatened-wildlife
Submit Comments:
https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0155
https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0156
https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0157
https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0158
By postal mail
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Docket Center, Water Docket (Mail Code 28221T)
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460
How to format your letters:
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Include the Docket ID: (there are 4) FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0029, FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0039, FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0044, FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0048
Comments must be received by the end of the day on Dec 22 in Washington DC. , Those sent on-line at the web portal need to be sent before midnight – i.e: 11:59 pm EST -on the 22nd, .
NGO Articles and Analyses:
Center for Biological Diversity – https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-moves-to-dismantle-endangered-species-act-2025-11-19/
Western Watersheds Project-
Pre-Fab Online Letters:
Earthjustice: https://earthjustice.org/action/the-law-that-saves-species-needs-saving?ms=web
Defenders of Wildlife – https://act.defenders.org/page/91578/action/1
Endangered Species Coalition (breaks it into 4 comment letters)
- Listing & Critical Habitat comment form. (Link)
- Blanket Rule public comment form. (Link)
- Critical Habitat Analysis comment form. (Link)
- Interagency Cooperation Regulations comment form. (Link
Pre-Fab Post Cards (you have to print at home and mail so arrive by 12/22/25)
Endangered Species Coalition has post cards you can down load and print with a simple comment for each rule proposal.
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1. Threatened Species Protections (the “Blanket 4(d) Rule”)
Read the talking points and submit your comments on this rule.
2. ESA Section 7 Interagency Consultation Regulations
Read the talking points and submit your comments on this rule.
3. Critical Habitat Exclusion Rule (Section 4(b)(2))
Read the talking points and submit your comments on this rule.
4. Listing & Critical Habitat Rules (50 CFR Part 424)
Read the talking points and submit your comments on this rule.
We know this is a lot to ask. But the future of some of our most imperiled species truly depends on public pressure and right now, that means flooding the comment portals with informed opposition. |
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Here are the ENDANGERED SPECIES COALITION’s TALKING POINTS:
Rule Docket Number FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0029
- If the blanket rule is removed, it will deprive newly listed threatened animal and plant species from automatically receiving protections from killing, trapping, and other forms of prohibited “take.” Species now proposed for listing, like the Florida manatee, California spotted owl, Greater sage grouse, and Monarch butterfly, could be left unprotected for years even after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalizes the listings.
- I urge you to withdraw this proposal. Delaying protections for “threatened” species leaves them vulnerable to becoming endangered.
Rule Docket Number: FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0039
- I urge you to withdraw this proposal. Endangered Species Act listings must be guided by science and prohibit economic considerations. Federal agencies should not be allowed to take actions that push listed species closer to extinction.
- I urge you to withdraw this proposal. Industry should not get a “rubber stamp” for projects that put federally endangered species more at risk.
- The narrowing of the definition of “critical habitat” to exclude currently unoccupied but historic habitat would be disastrous. Historic habitat is vital for the recovery of imperiled species, especially as the areas where they currently live shrink due to the rapidly changing climate and the chain effects of ongoing biodiversity loss.
- I urge you to withdraw this proposal. Critical habitat protections should be strengthened, but this proposal does the very opposite by making it harder to designate critical habitat and allowing destruction to designated critical habitat.
Rule Docket Number: FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0044
- I urge you to maintain strong compliance measures for federal agencies. The proposed rule makes it easier to greenlight destructive activities, such as logging or drilling. These actions will put protected species in harm’s way.
- ESA Section 7 calls for interagency cooperation. When federal agencies coordinate, share information, and carefully evaluate the impacts of their actions, they help prevent avoidable harm and promote long-term conservation.
- Strong interagency collaboration upholds the law and, importantly, strengthens transparency, improves decision-making, and reflects our shared responsibility to safeguard biodiversity for future generations.
Rule Docket Number: FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0048
- I urge you to keep the analysis method for determining critical habitat, habitat that are essential to species recovery
- I am concerned this proposal will lead to extinctions. It will exclude too much area from critical habitat designations. Habitat loss is the top driver of species extinction.
- In the United States, species proposed for listing, such as the Monarch butterfly and the Bethany Beach firefly, will need critical habitat protections. Science-based critical habitat designations are essential to truly recover endangered species.