WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump Administration wants to expand logging in the United States. According to an executive order titled Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production filed on March 1, 2025, President Trump ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create a plan to do so within federal lands. The order was made despite the fact that it may put endangered species within federal lands at risk, including those within the Mvskoke Reservation. It states:
“Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior, through the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the Secretary of Commerce, through the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, shall complete a strategy on USFS and BLM forest management projects under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1536) to improve the speed of approving forestry projects.”
As a result, a proposed rule change, titled “Rescinding the Definition of ‘Harm’ Under the Endangered Species Act” seeks to change the definition of the word ‘harm’ by changing what counts as harming an endangered species, such as the potential damage to animal habitats by logging and drilling.
The FWS asserts that the word ‘take’ as defined by the Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973, is “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.” The FWS is of the opinion that it does not need to define what harming an endangered species of animal would be.
The definition of ‘harm’ which the FWS is attempting to remove is stated in Title 50 “Wildlife & Fisheries” in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations as “an act which actually kills or injures fish or wildlife. Such an act may include significant habitat modification or degradation which actually kills or injures fish or wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including, breeding, spawning, rearing, migrating, feeding or sheltering.”
The removal of the specifics regarding habitat destruction allows for the potential of damage to the protected habitats of endangered animals.
Mvskoke Media reached out to the MCN Wildlife Program to see what impact these changes would have on endangered species in the MCN Reservation, such as the bald eagle.
As of press time, Mvskoke Media has not received a response from the MCN Wildlife Program.
Andrew Bowman, the CEO of the national non-profit Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation organization that fights for the protection and restoration of endangered species and their habitats in North America, has responded to this action by the Trump Administration:
“Despite the fact that the Endangered Species Act is America’s single greatest tool to prevent species extinction, has a 99% success rate and is supported across party lines and the country by 95% of the electorate, the Trump administration is hellbent on destroying it to further line the pockets of industry. The vast majority of imperiled wildlife listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA are there because of loss of habitat.
This latest salvo to redefine “harm” to eliminate protection for wildlife from habitat destruction, if successful, will further imperil threatened and endangered species. We will fight this action and continue to protect the wildlife and wild places we hold dear as a nation.”
As per standard procedure, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be accepting public comments until May 19.
Anyone interested in submitting a comment to the Department of the Interior can do so here: Rescinding Harm
