Webinar: Losing Ground—What the Endangered Species Act Rollbacks Mean for Whooping Cranes

For more than 50 years, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been one of the nation’s most effective tools for bringing wildlife back from the brink, and the Whooping Crane is among its clearest success stories. Now, sweeping changes under the Trump Administration are reshaping how the law works.

Join Hardy Kern, Director of Government Relations at American Bird Conservancy, and Dr. Andy Caven, Director of Central Flyway Programs at the International Crane Foundation, for a look at where the ESA stands today and what’s at stake on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 3 p.m. Central Time

Hardy will cover the policy landscape, including the administration’s regulatory changes and the legal challenges now underway. Andy will then focus on a tangible consequence: the rescission of the ESA’s regulatory definition of “harm,” which removed habitat destruction as a form of prohibited take. That change undermines the foundation of Habitat Conservation Plans and much of Section 10 of the Act, which have long brought private landowners and industry to the table to protect habitat. Andy will explain why this matters for the cranes that depend on wetlands and river habitat along the Central Flyway, and what conservationists can do next.

This webinar is brought to you by the International Crane Foundation and the American Bird Conservancy.