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Woodland Park Zoo officials say changes to Endangered Species Act would be detrimental

SEATTLE — Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo is asking for your help to stop changes to the Endangered Species Act that they say could be deadly to many of the animals native to the Pacific Northwest.

The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife has rolled out the proposed changes to the public and you have just a few days left to weigh-in.

We met 18-month-old Andre Smith on his first real trip to the zoo. Mom and dad Jessica and Rod Smith say it’s the perfect way to begin teaching their son that people are not autonomous.

“We don’t want the world to be a big parking lot. Let’s have some things outdoors for kids to explore. Let’s have some other things besides humans running around,” Rod Smith told us.

The fear now is there may be fewer “other things.”

“I urge you today to pay attention to save one of our nation’s landmark laws, the Endangered Species Act,” Woodland Park Zoo CEO Alejandro Grajal told a crowd of staff and reporters.

Zoo officials, along with an environmental scientist and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, are appealing to the public to oppose changes to the Endangered Species Act they say would be detrimental to our wolves, grizzlies, river otters and our salmon and orcas --, which are already under management plans.

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“Together we are talking about a set of changes that would dramatically weaken a bipartisan-supported act,” Jayapal said.

We scoured the proposal, which was pushed by the Trump administration and crafted by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Changes include adding a non-exhaustive list of circumstances where a “critical habitat” designation is not “prudent,” removing requirements that threatened species be given the same protections as endangered species and narrowing the scope of what is considered the “foreseeable future” when referring to animals that could become endangered.

Not everyone in Washington state agrees with every aspect of the Endangered Species Act.  For example, in 1990, the northern spotted owl was listed as a threatened species by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife.  As a result, the industry said 30,000 jobs were lost and timber harvest in the Pacific Northwest dropped by 80 percent.

“Are there some impacts here and there?  Perhaps in the short-term, some communities might feel that. I don’t want to deny that that is real for some communities,” Jayapal said at the podium.

Officials said Wednesday -- that all communities lose if children like Andre can only see some of our most iconic animals at a zoo.

“We don’t want our zoos to become museums,” Grajal concluded.

If you'd like to submit your opinion before the Sept. 24 deadline, click here.