The Trump administration escalated its war on nature in July when its Interior and Commerce departments decreed that the Endangered Species Act does not protect habitats. The decision—that only the organisms themselves are protected—contradicts decades of consensus going back to the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Like Trump’s other anti-environmental policies, this must be reverted by a future administration. And that should be only the beginning: Adequately confronting the extinction crisis will require reckoning with the shortcomings of the pre-Trump status quo in conservation policy. Even before the current assault on biodiversity, one East Coast songbird had slipped through the cracks and was plummeting toward extinction.

With its timid habits and narrow range in Atlantic tidal marshes, Saltmarsh Sparrows stay out of sight of all but the most dedicated birdwatchers. Seldom taking flight, this crisply marked, warm-hued sparrow navigates the marsh on foot, darting mouselike through the low, dense grasses.

But while spotting a Saltmarsh Sparrow has long been a challenge, it may soon become impossible. From 1998 to 2012, the Saltmarsh Sparrow population dropped by nearly 90 percent: from 212,000 to 28,000. The main culprit is rising sea levels.

Before sea-level rise accelerated, Saltmarsh Sparrows regularly lost some nests to tidal flooding, but the species adapted to life in the marsh within consistent tidal cycles. Both sexes hedge their genetic bets by seeking multiple mates—to a greater extent than any other bird—and females respond to nest loss by immediately building a new nest, giving their next clutch just enough time to fledge before the next month’s flood.

Researchers predict that by the 2060s there will never again be enough time. The interval between tides high enough to flood nests will narrow such that the sparrow will no longer be able to reproduce. If that happens, the Saltmarsh Sparrow would be the first bird species to go extinct on the US mainland in the Endangered Species Act era.

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Despite this, federal conservation authorities have never designated the Saltmarsh Sparrow as endangered. It has not even been listed as threatened. Instead, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS)—the Interior Department agency responsible for endangered species—keeps stalling on designating the Saltmarsh Sparrow for protection. Now it faces a lawsuit from the conservation group the Center for Biological Diversity, alleging that their failure to respond is unlawful. (Disclosure: I interned at the Center from May to October 2025.)

“It’s hard for me to think of a stronger case for listing a species under the Endangered Species Act based on the science,” Chris Elphick, a University of Connecticut biologist and sparrow researcher, told me. “I think it’s more likely to go extinct than some species that are on the endangered species list.”

Elphick and his colleague Greg Shriver asked USFWS to place the Saltmarsh Sparrow on the endangered species list nine years ago. The agency responded with a maddening series of unexplained delays. After agreeing to start the listing process by 2019, it instead postponed the decision to 2023, then to 2024. Eventually, a spokesperson told me the decision would come out “as soon as workload and schedules allow.” The date given for further action, last updated in spring 2025, reads “To Be Determined.”

The basis for the lawsuit filed in February by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is the USFWS’s failure to respond to its petition. The ESA gives the agency 90 days to decide whether the evidence presented could warrant listing. If so, it must formally determine within 12 months of receipt whether listing is warranted, not warranted, or “precluded” by higher-priority species. Yet, more than two years after the CBD submitted the petition, USFWS has given no response at all. (A USFWS representative declined to comment on ongoing litigation.)

Missing these deadlines is standard practice at USFWS, said Lia Comerford, an attorney leading the lawsuit for the CBD. She told me that the agency’s listing backlog predates the Trump administration’s attacks.

“Certainly, the Fish and Wildlife Service, especially right now, is under attack by the Trump administration,” Comerford said. “But that doesn’t excuse them from the statutory deadlines set up in the Endangered Species Act, and that they need to fulfill their obligations to protect imperiled species.”

If this lawsuit succeeds in securing a belated 90-day finding, Comerford said the CBD is prepared to sue again for the 12-month finding.

For now, local efforts can help fill in the gaps in regulatory action. In the northeast corner of Massachusetts, a state where the sparrow is listed as a species of special concern, USFWS wildlife biologist Nancy Pau oversees marsh restoration at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. Pau previously worked on endangerment findings at the agency; now she fills old farm ditches and drains pools of standing water to restore the marsh’s natural tidal flows. Wary of bureaucratic burdens, though, Pau is ambivalent about listing the sparrow as endangered.

“Even though it’s not listed, I feel like voluntary conservation is working,” Pau said. “We’re doing recovery without the species being listed.”

Pau pointed out that sparrow conservation is already a regional priority for the agency, and that listing the species wouldn’t necessarily bring in any more money for conservation. I don’t see it that way—this species lives in a narrow stretch of coast spanning 14 states, all with their own environmental laws, and we’re running out of time to pull it out of a precipitous decline. If the Endangered Species Act isn’t invoked here, what is it for?

The UFWS has a statutory obligation to protect imperiled creatures like this sparrow, but saving it is also in our own interest. Creatures like the Saltmarsh Sparrow are leading indicators of our failure to address the climate crisis. Coastal marshes are critical buffers against flooding, and many lie adjacent to homes, businesses, and roads. The rising seas annihilating the sparrow’s ability to nest also threaten coastal residents in the densely populated Northeast. If we lose the Saltmarsh Sparrow because we fail to protect its marshes, much worse is in store—because those marshes protect us.

Conversely, if we do what it takes to save the sparrow—restoring marshes degraded by centuries of European settlement, clearing the way for new marshes in areas on the verge of inundation—we could stabilize our shorelines against the sea- level rise locked in by existing greenhouse gas emissions.

But without the political will to muster robust protections for the bird and the habitats we all depend on, the Saltmarsh Sparrow is dead in the water.