For 50 years, federal law has protected the habitats that endangered and threatened species depend on to survive. Salmon need clean rivers to spawn. Piping plovers need undisturbed beaches to nest. Hawksbill sea turtles need intact coastlines. The Endangered Species Act has shielded these ecosystems from destruction since 1975, a protection the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 1995.

The Trump administration has now erased that protection.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service finalized a rule removing habitat destruction from the legal definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act. Under the new rule, a company can legally log the nesting trees of endangered owls, dam the spawning rivers of threatened Atlantic salmon, or bulldoze the migratory stopover beaches of piping plovers, as long as no protected animal is directly killed in the process. The rule takes effect September 14.

Interior Secretary Douglas Burgum called the old rule a "regulatory trap." What it actually was is the backbone of one of the most successful conservation laws ever passed. It has helped prevent the extinction of dozens of species and supported the recovery of many more.

The consequences extend beyond wildlife. Healthy habitats filter water, control flooding, and protect coastlines. When those ecosystems are destroyed, the communities that depend on them lose those protections too.

Courts may block this rule. But Congress has the power to make these habitat protections permanent, by codifying the definition of "harm" into statute so no administration can erase it by rulemaking.

Sign to demand Congress act before September 14 to restore and protect the Endangered Species Act's habitat provisions.