Trump administration protects endangered mussels

President Trump has made a name for himself by repealing all sorts of regulations, but on Tuesday his administration proposed new regulations to protect a threatened species for the first time.

The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed listing the yellow lance freshwater mussel on the Endangered Species List. The agency says the creature is threatened, which means it could become endangered in the near future.

The yellow lance mussel is found in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. But its population has declined by about 57 percent, the agency said.

{mosads}The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the FWS in 2010 to list the yellow lance mussel as an endangered species. The FWS last year agreed to conduct a review of the mussel’s status and submit a 12-month finding. But the agreement did not require the agency to list the mussel as endangered.

President Trump eventually allowed the agency’s ruling on the mussel’s threatened status to move forward.

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