On September 14, the day the Trump administration's rescission of the Endangered Species Act's definition of "harm" took effect, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik signed a memo and sent it to the agency's field offices. The New York Times obtained it.
The memo reinterprets what it means to "take" an endangered animal, the core prohibition that has given the Endangered Species Act its power for more than half a century. Under Nesvik's reading, the accidental killing or injuring of a protected species is no longer illegal. It doesn’t matter if the death was foreseeable. It doesn’t matter if you knew the animal was there. Only actions carried out for the specific purpose of killing or capturing an animal count.
The Interior Department wouldn't tell the Times why it adopted this interpretation or whether it's already being enforced. They didn't publish it in the Federal Register and they didn't open it to public com…
