The Endangered Species Act of 1973 :: Conservation Biology Wildlife Essays

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the most powerful tools that environmentally concerned citizens have to preserve biodiversity. Specific categories that the Endangered Species Act (ESA) includes are the listing of "Threatened species", "Endangered species", and the designation of "critical habitat". When these categories are identified, it is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) which assumes the responsibility of enforcement. Development of recovery plans, Biological or Environmental Assessments, and the development of Habitat Conservation Plans are just some of the tasks for USFWS (Smallwood, et al,). This act which was originally enacted in 1973, and its’ reauthorization, is now going through quite a bit of debate. The ESA has actually been awaiting reauthorization from Congress since 1995 (Reid, 1995). There are two main "ideas" for bills to effect the ESA. There are bills that will strengthen the Act by emphasizing endangered species recovery over extinc tion risk. The other bills will weaken the Act by bringing more attention to the needs of businesses and landowners (Brown, et al). The main controversy seems to arise from economic and social concerns. There is also a great deal of scientific concern about the accurate implementation of this "species-saving" act. I was recently alerted to the economic ramifications of this Act through a local issue I have been "looking into". My frustrations mounted when I learned the USFWS gave an "OK" to developers, to bulldoze through a pristine habitat in my community. Seeing that six threatened and endangered species make their home here, I couldn’t understand why the USFWS had backed down. The answer, which seems all too common was, the USFWS simply doesn’t have enough money to effectively protect these species at this time. Consequently the majority of my paper will focus on some of the economic issues the ESA is faced with. Question number one is "How effective has the ESA been?" This question is difficult for both scientists and government officials to answer. Most agree that the amount of time since the ESA was enacted is really too short of a time period to impartially answer this question. I will attempt to point out some of the facts. "Since the inception of the Act in 1973, 11 species of more than 1,000 listed have recovered and have been removed from the list, including the eastern states brown pelican, Utah’s Rydberg milk-vetch, and the California gray whale" (Brown, et al, 1998).