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This Little Bird Is in Big Trouble—and Trump Is Making Things Worse

The Saltmarsh Sparrow’s numbers are cratering. Why isn’t the government doing something about it?

The Saltmarsh Sparrow.

The Trump administration escalated its war on nature in July when its Interior and Commerce departments decreed that the Endangered Species Act does not protect habitats. The decision—that only the organisms themselves are protected—contradicts decades of consensus going back to the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Like Trump’s other anti-environmental policies, this must be reverted by a future administration. And that should be only the beginning: Adequately confronting the extinction crisis will require reckoning with the shortcomings of the pre-Trump status quo in conservation policy. Even before the current assault on biodiversity, one East Coast songbird had slipped through the cracks and was plummeting toward extinction.

With its timid habits and narrow range in Atlantic tidal marshes, Saltmarsh Sparrows stay out of sight of all but the most dedicated birdwatchers. Seldom taking flight, this crisply marked, warm-hued sparrow navigates the marsh on foot, darting mouselike through the low, dense grasses.

But while spotting a Saltmarsh Sparrow has long been a challenge, it may soon become impossible. From 1998 to 2012, the Saltmarsh Sparrow population dropped by nearly 90 percent: from 212,000 to 28,000. The main culprit is rising sea levels.

Before sea-level rise accelerated, Saltmarsh Sparrows regularly lost some nests to tidal flooding, but the species adapted to life in the marsh within consistent tidal cycles. Both sexes hedge their genetic bets by seeking multiple mates—to a greater extent than any other bird—and females respond to nest loss by immediately building a new nest, giving their next clutch just enough time to fledge before the next month’s flood.

Researchers predict that by the 2060s there will never again be enough time. The interval between tides high enough to flood nests will narrow such that the sparrow will no longer be able to reproduce. If that happens, the Saltmarsh Sparrow would be the first bird species to go extinct on the US mainland in the Endangered Species Act era.

Despite this, federal conservation authorities have never designated the Saltmarsh Sparrow as endangered. It has not even been........

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