Waterborne’s field and data services teams have long supported nutrient loss reduction strategies within the Midwest, and over the last several years, we have worked closely with clients and partners to assist in meeting individual state goals outlined by the Hypoxia Task Force.

While there is still much work to be done to meet the overarching 2035 goals outlined by the Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan, Waterborne is proud to be part of this historic initiative and to contribute our innovative approaches to identification, instrumentation & monitoring, and data analysis to support the reduction of nutrients in watersheds. The 2025 data summarized by the USGS reflect the states’ efforts to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in Gulf waters and ultimately reduce the hypoxic zone area. The collective efforts put forward by so many entities – small to large, and individuals to institutions - are finally being reflected in the broader environmental concentration datasets. This positive shift in environmental health is one reason why Waterborne is so passionate about the work we do...

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On July 7th, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries announced a change to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This new version’s one-word change redefines “harm,” and thereby habitat. Under the July 10, 2026 version of the Act, destroying a threatened or endangered species’ habitat is no longer illegal. The new version also removes protections for newly protected threatened species under the ESA.

Signed into law with bipartisan support on December 28th, 1973, the ESA was created to protect wildlife and plants from dangers caused by human actions. The Act was so popular that it passed the U.S. Senate without a single no vote. Efforts under the ESA ranged from identifying and adding species to an “endangered” or “threatened” list to protecting critical habitats and developing plans to bring species back to safe levels. Once added to either the endangered or threatened list, species were entitled to federal protections in hopes that they could recover in numbers.



The July 2026 revision impacts the critical habitat exclusions (Section 4(b)(2)) of the Act. It is not the first political challenge to the word “harm” as related to habitats that the Act has faced. In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the word “harm” as it relates to “habitat destruction that impairs breeding, feeding, or shelter.” Therefore, by removing the word “harm,” the Agencies have removed barriers for developers, landowners, and hunters, who are now free to destroy a listed species’ habitats without first appealing to federal authorities. It’s a change that puts some species protected by the ESA on an accelerated path toward extinction... 

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