The Trump administration moved on Monday to weaken how it applies the 45-year-old Endangered Species Act, ordering changes that critics said will speed the loss of animals and plants at a time of record global extinctions .
- Trump administration announces changes to Endangered Species Act that weaken some protections
- Meet Michigan's only venomous snake, the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake
- Federal agency debates removing gray wolves from endangered species list
The action, which expands the administration's rewrite of U.S. environmental laws, is the latest that targets protections, including for water, air and public lands. Two states — California and Massachusetts, frequent foes of President Donald Trump's environmental rollbacks — promised lawsuits to try to block the changes in the law. So did some conservation groups.
- Below is a list of the endangered & threatened species in Michigan. (courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife service)
Animals
Indiana bat – endangered
Northern long-eared bat – threatened
Rayed Bean – endangered
Hungerford's crawling water beetle – endangered
Karner blue butterfly – endangered
Mitchell's satyr butterfly – endangered
Clubshell – endangered
Hine's emerald dragonfly – endangered
Red knot – threatened
Canada Lynx – threatened
Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake – threatened
Snuffbox mussel – endangered
Piping plover – endangered
Northern riffleshell – endangered
Poweshiek skipperling – endangered
Copperbelly water snake – threatened
Kirtland's warbler – endangered
Gray wolf – endangered
Plants
Lakeside daisy – threatened
American hart's-tongue fern – threatened
Houghton's goldenrod – threatened
Dwarf Lake Iris – threatened
Michigan monkey flower – endangered
Eastern prairie fringed Orchid – threatened
Small whorled pogonia – threatened
Pitcher's thistle – threatened
