Endangered Species Act Implications in the Southeast

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

The Endangered Species Act is now being compared to the Waters of the U.S. rule in that it seems to be one of those rules/regulations/things going on in Washington D.C. that like to flip-flop with each administration while seeing no actual finality.

So what’s going on? Well, a few weeks back, the Biden administration released three final rules under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that rewrite and rollback what the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says were improvements made under the Trump administration.

The revisions in the final rules include reinstating the blanket 4(d) rule for threatened species; prohibiting the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) from considering the economic impact of their habitat decisions; and giving FWS the ability to designate critical habitat in areas the species doesn’t currently occupy…

It’s that third part that creates an abundance of national concern according to Sigrid Johannes, Director for the Public Lands Council and NCBA Government Affairs…

“This new rule says there is no requirement for unoccupied critical habitat to be able to support the life processes of the species.”

According to the NCBA, hstorically, ESA rulemakings have had an outsized impact on western producers, but these new rules now put every cattle producer across the country under the threat of a critical habitat designation.