Colorado conservation groups and elected officials are among those pushing back against a proposal by President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back parts of the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week announced four proposed changes to Endangered Species Act regulations, according to a news release from the federal government. The release states that the rule changes are part of implementing Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order, which directs agencies to “remove regulatory barriers that hinder responsible resource development and economic growth.”

U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement that the changes are “restoring the Endangered Species Act to its original intent, protecting species through clear, consistent and lawful standards that also respect the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our land and resources.”

Conservation organizations, however, are raising concern that the Trump administration’s changes will have negative impacts on wildlife. The Endangered Species Coalition, which includes dozens of nonprofits conservation groups from across the country, including 10 from Colorado, wrote in a news release that the proposed rule changes would “fundamentally weaken the Endangered Species Act in ways that could bring imminent harm to imperiled species.”

The changes would bias listing decisions with unreliable economic analyses, obstruct the ability to list new protected species, make it easier to remove species from the federal endangered or threatened list, make it more difficult to designate and protect critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, eliminate automatic protections for threatened species and more, according to the Endangered Species Coalition.

The coalition said “the Trump administration’s rules could send some of America’s most vulnerable plants and wildlife, such as monarch butterflies, sea turtles, manatees, wolverines, and hundreds more, on a path toward extinction.”

Colorado Parks and Wildlife public information officer Joseph Livingston said in a statement that the state agency is aware of the proposed changes and is “reviewing them and may have more to say at a later date.”

Josh Osher, the public policy director for the Western Watersheds Project, a nonprofit that works to protect native species and their habitats across the West, including in Colorado, described the proposed changes as “a moral and ecological failure of the highest order.”

“It’s an extinction plan for profit, handing the keys of the Endangered Species Act to industry lobbyists and turning wildlife protection into a cost-benefit calculation where extinction becomes an acceptable outcome,” Osher said in a statement.

According to a 2025 poll, there is widespread public support in the U.S. for protecting wildlife, with 58% of Americans responding that they believe the Endangered Species Act should be more protective, compared to only 11% who thought it should be less protective.

Colorado Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet both provided statements responding to the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act.

“The Endangered Species Act protects America’s wildlife, which plays a critical part in Colorado’s biodiversity and landscapes,” Hickenlooper said. “Rollbacks in environmental protections put our delicate ecosystems and public lands at risk.”

Bennet said that ranchers, farmers and wildlife are all too often caught in a “constant back-and-forth between administrations.”

“We must have consistency in how these laws are implemented — without it, these communities are left with no clarity,” he said. “Decisions like these must be based on science rather than for political gain.”

More information about the proposed rule changes and how to submit a public comment during the 30-day comment period that began Nov. 21, visit TinyUrl.com/ESAChanges.