U.S. officials on Friday said they will make it easier for scientists to relocate plants and animals outside their historical ranges as a last resort to save species threatened with extinction by climate change.
U.S. officials on Friday said they will make it easier for scientists to relocate plants and animals outside their historical ranges as a last resort to save species threatened with extinction by climate change.
Relocations of species struggling because of climate change have been carried out on a limited basis to date, including in Hawaii where researchers have raced to move seabirds to new islands to save them from rising ocean waters.
A change in federal regulations published Friday by the Biden administration would allow similar relocations for some of the most imperiled plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.
It also allows for relocations when a species is being crowded out by nonnative plants or wildlife. This summer officials plan to introduce Guam kingfishers on the Palmyra Atoll south of Hawaii, after brown tree snakes accidentally brought to Guam around 1950 decimated their population.
