The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has adopted new rules to help it manage threatened and endangered species.

The rules came about to address climate change.

When biologists manage endangered species, they try to work with animals in their historic range.

But climate change has redrawn habitat boundaries, so the Fish and Wildlife Service has adopted new rules that allow it to consider the effects of a warming planet.

Seth Willey of the Fish and Wildlife Service says the new policy will give the agency more flexibility in management decisions.

"I mean I think in general this is a really important tool for the Service and our continued ability to advance recovery and do it in a changing world," Willey said. "I think this is a regulatory change that is important, it’s certainly one that biologists out in the field have been pushing for, and it allows us to modernize the Endangered Species Act and let the science lead."

He said the rule will also help the agency when it works with landowners and other organizations.