As soon as the election and happened the campaign started. On behalf of cattle ranchers and landowners there’s a determined effort to roll back wildlife protections on threatened species.
This is a law that has been very successful, and has saved a number of keystone species from extinction.
Cattle ranches hate the rule because it can restrict their right to public land ( surely it’s in the name, I can’t imagine a high proportion of Americans would prefer their national parks, and other wild lands, become free grazing for anyone with herd of cattle or sheep). Of course this also comes with their desire to kill any Predators on the land such as Wolves and bears.
While it took sometime to get a meeting, within three months of the meeting the current administration was announcing plans to roll back to protections on many endangered animals in the USA.
The main lawyer, Jonathan Woods, runs his own law firm, with over 50 million dollars in cash and 73 lawyers working to end protection for wild animals.
While people in America tend to like the big Open Spaces, the rich are more keen on the freedom for business to operate how it wishes. If this destroys the wild places than that is just the price of business. It should be noted that funding for groups like this comes from the ultra rich. This move would only benefit the ultra-rich and would leave everyone else worse off.
While it is sold worldwide as as protecting the poor, eradication of of large mammals really benefits the poor and the proceeds almost inevitably flow to people at the very top. It must be fought hard, though with Trump at the top it is hard to know what can be done.