“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a potentially drastic change to the way the agency implements the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The highly technical proposal, titled ‘Removal of Blanket Section 4(d) Rule,’ is believed to eliminate a rule that effectively treats species categorized as ‘threatened’ the same as those categorized as ‘endangered.’ The 4(d) rule has been in place since 1978, extending endangered ‘take’ prohibitions to threatened species as well.  Since going on the books, 4(d) has drawn praise from environmentalists and criticism from private-property advocates. (full article)