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Trump administration eliminates automatic protections for newly threatened species, requiring lengthy species-specific reviews that could delay saving monarch butterflies and manatees.

Environmentalists call the changes “absurd and heartbreaking,” warning species like the California spotted owl and North American wolverine face years-long protection delays.

The Interior Department will now weigh economic impacts when designating critical habitat, answering longtime Republican and industry calls to limit the Endangered Species Act.

BILLINGS, Mont. — President Trump’s administration moved Wednesday to roll back protections for imperiled species and the places they live, reviving a

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