But to wildlife advocates, the votes illustrate the act’s vulnerability - if not to repeal, then to sapping its strength through legislative, agency or court actions. The Biden administration repealed or announced plans to rewrite others.īut with a couple of Democratic defections, the Senate voted narrowly this spring to undo protections for a rare grouse known as the lesser prairie chicken as well as the northern long-eared bat. It let federal authorities consider economic costs of protecting species and disregard habitat impacts from climate change.Ī federal judge blocked some of Trump’s moves. The Trump administration ended blanket protection for animals newly deemed threatened. A slim Democratic majority in the Senate is the difference between keeping the law on life support and blowing it up.” “Fast-forward to today, and support has declined pretty dramatically,” she said. Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton, said there were still enough GOP moderates to help Democrats fend off sweeping changes sought by hardline congressional Republicans. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1 million species worldwide at risk. Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act took effect, environmental advocates and scientists say the law is as essential as ever. The northern spotted owl’s listing as threatened in 1990 sparked years of feuding between conservationists and the timber industry over management of Pacific Northwest forestland.įILE - A northern spotted owl sits on a branch in Point Reyes, Calif., in June 1995. “But people didn’t anticipate that things they wouldn’t notice, or wouldn’t think beautiful, would need protection in ways that would block some economic activity.”Īn early battle involved the snail darter, a tiny Southeastern fish that delayed construction of a Tennessee dam on a river then considered its only remaining home. “It’s easy to get everybody to sign on with protecting whales and grizzly bears,” Doremus said. The endangered list grew to include little-known creatures - from the frosted flatwoods salamander to the tooth cave spider - and nearly 1,000 plants. “We had a sense as a country that we had done damage and we needed to heal.”īut backlash emerged as the statute spurred regulation of oil and gas development, logging, ranching and other industries. “It was not created by a bunch of hippies,” said Rebecca Hardin, a University of Michigan environmental anthropologist. President Richard Nixon, a Republican, signed it into law. The act cleared Congress with what in hindsight appears stunning ease: unanimous Senate approval and a 390-12 House vote. It ordered federal agencies not to authorize or fund actions likely to jeopardize their existence, although amendments later allowed permits for limited “take” - incidental killing - resulting from otherwise legal projects.

The 1973 measure made it illegal to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect” listed animals and plants or ruin their habitats. “If that doesn’t make you go on the endangered species list, what’s going to?”įILE - A Florida panther, rescued as a kitten, was released back into the wild in the Florida Everglades, April 3, 2013. “Its population has dropped 90% in a very short period of time,” he said. That’s an ominous sign, said Kurta the Michigan scientist, donning waders to slosh across the mucky river bottom for the bat netting project in mid-June. “And we know that biodiversity is worth preserving for many reasons, whether it be to protect human health or because of a moral imperative to be good stewards of our one and only planet.”ĭespite the Delaware Democrat’s plea, the Senate voted to nullify the bat’s endangered designation after opponents said disease, not economic development, was primarily responsible for the population decline.

“The Endangered Species Act is our best tool to address biodiversity loss in the United States,” Senate Environment and Public Works chairman Tom Carper said during a May floor debate over whether the northern long-eared bat should keep its protection status granted in 2022. Some experts say the law’s survival depends on rebuilding bipartisan support, no easy task in polarized times.

But some scientists and activists fear the act itself is in trouble (Aug. Endangered Species Act took effect, officials say 99% of the animals and plants it protects have survived.

Earthtimes. org endangered species