Below is a news release from the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). Hunt 2 Conserve supports rescinding the blanket rule.

PERC and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) applaud the Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) proposal to rescind the “blanket rule” that arbitrarily regulates endangered and threatened species the same and ignores the Endangered Species Act’s (ESA) text, science, species’ unique needs, and recovery progress. For those reasons, PERC and RMEF filed a lawsuit challenging the previous administration’s adoption of the blanket rule.

In July, President Trump directed the Service, and other federal agencies, to “recover America’s fish and wildlife populations through proactive, voluntary, on-the-ground conservation efforts.” Rescinding the blanket rule is a vital and necessary step toward fulfilling that policy. The blanket rule arbitrarily prohibits proactive, voluntary conservation, including habitat restoration. And, in doing so, it discourages species recovery. Tailored rules, however, remove roadblocks for proactive conservation efforts, including prescribed fire, forest thinning, and stream restoration.

The blanket rule also ignores science and the important role of state wildlife agencies. Under it, the Service never assesses how to best promote the recovery of most species, despite the ESA requiring this analysis for every threatened species. Instead, it imposes an illegal and arbitrary one-size-fits-all approach that Congress rejected when it limited Section 9 to endangered species. Instead, Congress intended states to take a greater role in recovering and managing threatened species. Yet the blanket rule, without explanation, deprives states of the flexibility needed to fill that role.

Finally, as the Service explained in 2019, and reaffirmed in 2024, developing tailored rules for each threatened species “incentivize[s] conservation for both endangered and threatened species.” The blanket rule, by treating endangered and threatened species the same, removes this incentive by denying states and landowners any reward for recovery progress.

Click here to read the public comment.

About Hunt 2 Conserve

Hunt 2 Conserve is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Its mission is to advance a legacy of hunting and conservation by educating, activating and developing stewards and defenders of these fundamentally American ideals. For more information, go to hunt2conserve.org.

(Photo credit: Kirk Stovall/Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)