The Trump administration this year plans to finalize a range of potentially far-reaching changes to wildlife management, including changing the definition of what it means to “harm” an endangered species and making decisions on whether to provide federal protections for certain plants and animals.
In its unified agenda, the regulatory blueprint released Friday, the Office of Management and Budget laid out deadlines for decisions on grizzly bear populations and other wildlife.
One change expected to be finalized this month would remove prohibitions on second-order “harm” to imperiled species like habitat destruction. That shift was first proposed in April 2025.
By October, the Fish and Wildlife Service also plans to finish rules governing how to analyze the economic and other effects of designating critical habitat for species. The changes would put back in place a rule carried out by the first Trump administration that was later revoked under former President Joe Biden.
