https://writersontherange.org/trump-administration-legalizes-extinction-of-the-gunnison-sage-grouse/ Syndicated Opinion for the American West Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:08:25 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.1 https://writersontherange.org/trump-administration-legalizes-extinction-of-the-gunnison-sage-grouse/#comment-1181 Sun, 06 Sep 2026 18:01:55 +0000 https://writersontherange.org/?p=11298#comment-1181 Trump’s removal of the regulatory definition of “harm” is the issue affecting the Gunnison’s sage grouse, as well as most other species on the endangered species list. Previously, regulations defined harm to include significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by impairing essential behavioral patterns like breeding, feeding, or sheltering. With the removal of the definition of harm, there is no longer a requirement for an incidental take permit under the ESA, which required people, agencies, corporations etc. to develop habitat conservation plans that lay out how they would minimize and mitigate effects of projects on species’ habitat. Harm” is now undefined in the regulations, but now requires direct, affirmative acts intentionally or immediately directed against a specific animal rather than indirect effects from habitat alteration. This is all very separate from a recovery plan, which is not a regulatory document.

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