WASHINGTON— Three hundred and fifty scientists, 25 law professors and 131 conservation and community organizations spoke out today against a Trump administration proposal intended to weaken habitat protections that could make it much harder to protect threatened and endangered species across the United States.

In April the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed to rescind the definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act regulations, attempting to eliminate habitat protections for species protected under the law.

Today’s letters note that this could open the door for nearly unchecked destruction of the wild places where imperiled animals live.

“Trump’s smash-and-grab habitat plan could welcome bulldozers and drilling rigs into the beautiful wild places that America’s most imperiled animals call home,” said Tara Zuardo, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The administration’s proposal seeks to rip a bloody hole in the Endangered Species Act, prioritizing industry profits over protecting habitat that’s crucial to preventing extinction. This is an illegal attempt to nullify a landmark wildlife law that’s supported by nearly every American who isn’t an oil executive, a timber baron or a Trump appointee.”

In passing the Endangered Species Act, Congress recognized habitat destruction as the primary cause of species decline. For more than 40 years — and in keeping with the plain language and conservation purpose of the Endangered Species Act — the existing definition of “harm” has included habitat modification. The current harm definition was also upheld as in keeping with the plain language and intent of the law by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995.

The definition makes it abundantly clear that acts resulting in significant habitat modification or degradation that result in death or injury to a protected species are prohibited. This is critical because the largest cause of extinction continues to be human-caused habitat destruction and degradation.

Rescinding the definition could upend and undermine existing protections that have prevented the extinction of more than 99% of species protected by the Endangered Species Act and open the floodgates to developers, loggers, miners and oil and gas drillers to destroy endangered species habitats. This could be the nail in the coffin for imperiled species across the United States and beyond, like Florida manatees, green sea turtles and spotted owls.