Colorado has joined 16 other states in suing the Trump administration for its rollback of the Endangered Species Act, Gov. Jared Polis announced Wednesday.

Heralding the act’s “great success at bringing species back from the brink of extinction,” Polis called the rollback “dangerous” and “misguided.”

“Colorado is loved for its wild and natural beauty,” he said in a statement. “Our state is home to a variety of wildlife species that help support our thriving outdoor recreation economy, and we will continue fighting to protect them.”

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, follows a similar challenge filed last month by several environmental groups, including the Humane Society and the Sierra Club.

The new rules begin taking effect Thursday. They for the first time allow officials to consider how much it would cost to save a species. They also remove blanket protections for animals newly listed as threatened and make it easier for creatures to be removed from the protected list.

The endangered-species law, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, has been credited with helping prevent the extinction of more than 220 species, including bald eagles, grizzly bears and humpback whales. It requires the government to list species that are endangered or threatened.

The law protects about 1,600 plant and animal species, designates habitat protections for them, and assesses whether federal activities will hurt them.

Critics have long complained that the environmentalists have weaponized the law to block economic activity such as logging and mining, infringing on property rights. The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have said the new rules will improve the law’s enforcement.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said they ease “the regulatory burden on the American public” without sacrificing conservation goals.

“The best way to uphold the Endangered Species Act is to do everything we can to ensure it remains effective in achieving its ultimate goal – recovery of our rarest species,” U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said last month when the changes were unveiled. “An effectively administered act ensures more resources can go where they will do the most good: on-the-ground conservation.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in Polis’ statement that the Trump administration’s has gone “too far by restricting the circumstances under which species can be listed as threatened, reducing federal enforcement of the law, and curtailing public involvement in the process.”

The act “is our country’s signature tool for protecting wildlife, and we will fight the federal government’s attempt to undermine its effectiveness,” Wesier said in the release.

The states challenging Trump’s rules are Colorado, California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The District of Columbia and New York City were also named as plaintiffs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.