Extinction is Forever! Comment by May 19

We need your voice. Tell federal agencies not to strip habitat protections from the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Submit your comment before the deadline on Monday, May 19.

The ESA is one of our most powerful tools for protecting wildlife on the brink of extinction. But right now, it’s under threat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a damaging change to the way “harm” is defined under the ESA, which would no longer consider habitat destruction as harmful to endangered species. Instead, “harm” would be limited to only direct actions like hunting and trapping. This narrow interpretation contradicts decades of legal precedent and the intent of Congress when it passed the ESA in 1973.

The proposed change would leave thousands of species vulnerable to extinction. Here in the Chicago-Calumet River watershed, it could mean the loss of critical habitat along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, home to the Hine’s emerald dragonfly, a federally endangered species that relies on this rare ecological corridor to survive and reproduce.

Listen to our Inside, Out & About podcast interview of renowned dragonfly and damselfly expert Marla Garrison to learn more about these fascinating creatures.