It's Time to Reform the Endangered Species Act
In 1973, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act. The Act was passed in response to findings by Congress that growth and development were responsible for the extinction of species of fish, wildlife and plants.
This Act was to provide programs to protect species identified as either endangered or threatened. It also mandated Federal agencies and departments to protect endangered and threatened species in their own operations, as well as work with State and local agencies to further promote conservation and protection of identified species.
By the definition of the Endangered Species Act, a species covered by the legislation is either classified “Endangered” if threatened with
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They felt “Recovery plans all too often "manage for extinction" rather than for survival”.
The National Wildlife Institute has published “Conservation Under the Endangered Species Act: A Promise Broken”. Their critique of the Act includes questioning the programs undertaken as a result of the Act have played sufficient roles in the recovery of species that were delisted, as well as questioning the allocation of funding to programs intended to aid listed species.
The National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition is questioning the effectiveness of the Act, as well as its impact on people. Pointing to the poor progress of removing species from the Endangered and Threatened lists, the group calls on reform of the Act, to reform the methods for determining eligibility for listing, opening the listing and regulatory processes of the Act to include participation from all groups affected by the legislation, and providing more incentives for private citizens and businesses to pro-actively participate in conservation of listed species.
MY OPINION
While well-intended, the Act has some shortcomings, as indicated by the lack of progress in getting species off the list. This indicates that the programs that are part of the Act are failing to accomplish their mandated objective.
Also, while biodiversity is crucial to protect, there are natural processes
Since earth was created, there has been a natural phenomenon of species across the globe appearing and disappearing. However, in the past century, many species of animals have been disappearing at an alarming rate. Mainly, this rapidly occurring issue is caused by humans. Humans that contribute to the harmful actions that cause side effects such a pollution, deforestation, habitat loss and poaching. The natural rate of extinction pales in comparison to the extinction rate caused by all of these. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the current rate of extinction is 11,000 times greater than the natural extinction rate. Several different efforts have been made in order to stop or slow down the extinction of earth’s species. The Endangered Species Act is possibly the most successful example of these efforts. It’s main purpose is to get a commitment from the American people that they will work hand in hand to help save species that are at risk of becoming extinct and never returning. This act was put in place in 1973 and since then, no other law about the disappearance of wildlife has been quite as accomplished. Many different species that are protected under this law are either fully recovered or on their way to becoming safer. Laws like these are helping many different creatures left and right, however, at the alarming rate that they are disappearing, something else needs to be done. What people don’t seem to realize is that we depend on many of the animals that we are
7)The federal government is responsible for creating the Endangered Species Act, a law that protects animal and plant species that are on the red list.
Today, wildlife refuges have one purpose and it is to not let these atrocities to occur because of climate changes. Despite the fact that these refuges exist to protect endangered species, they are unable to recreate the animal’s natural habitat and the animals die anyway. For instance, the Aransas wildlife refuge keeps 500 endangered species throughout the Midwest, but more species are becoming extinct annually (17). This has been happening for many years. According to the Endangered Species Act, over 40 endangered species become extinct annually, and the number increases every year. Wildlife refuges, believed by some to beneficial, cannot help species survive unless the natural ecosystem can be
The Endangered Species Act was enacted by Congress in 1973. According to Reference 1, this act requires the federal government to protect endangered species, threatening species, and their critical habits. Animals are protected from being harmed, sold, or traded and plants are protected if they are on federal property. The conservation success of this act is very important because it saves wildlife and plants from going extinct. Many people do not realize that the loss of a species can be disastrous for our ecosystem. Reference 1 lists six success stories of endangered species under the act. The success stories are of the bald eagle, florida panther, gray wolf, grizzly bear, peregrine falcon, and the red-cockaded woodpecker. The Endangered
2. When a certain type of animal becomes so rare that it’s in danger of becoming extinct, the government can call it an “endangered species” to help protect it from disappearing forever.
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973. The U.S. Supreme Court found that "the plain intent of Congress in enacting" the ESA "was to halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction, whatever the cost.” (biologicaldiversity.org) Countless extinctions of precious animals forced Congress to take a stand and prioritize the wellbeing of animals along with other important national issues like war and civil rights. Under the ESA, species were put on a list in one of four different categories: extinct, endangered, threatened, and delisted. To head the extensive project, Congress put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in charge. The Wildlife Service immediately went to work to try to level the numbers of threatened animals. One of the first species on the list was the timber wolf, a Wisconsin native, who was listed as endangered because of overhunting due to the demand for its fur. In the first year of the ESA, more than 1,000 new species were added to the list, and through the years that number kept rising thanks to the efforts of wildlife activists, Congress, and the U.S Wildlife
The National Park Service’s motto is, in other words, a pledge to preserve Earth’s natural resources before anything else- put preserving wildlife as their first priority (United, What). They have shown many times over that they will stick to this motto. One example is of the Mexican long-nosed bat, a species whose only home is now the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park (United, “Endangered”). The Service works especially hard to follow the Endangered Species Act of 1973 which defines any endangered species as a plant or animal in danger of dying out in a large portion of its range at the very least. It defines a threatened species as one that is likely to soon become endangered. All decisions to do with saving an animal are based on this act, which rescues many animals each year (United,
Most people are familiar with the Endangered Species List which is a document that shows various fish, birds, mammals, and other creatures that are in danger of extermination from the face of the Earth. The lists served the purpose of ensuring that the government would do whatever was necessary to stop this from happening. When the Endangered Species Act was first envisioned, the idea was that creating a piece of federal legislation to prevent the killing of animals that had a severely decreased population would help to revitalize that species and prevent the animal's extinction. What started out as a grassroots campaign from concerned environmentalists and nature conservationists became a subject for political discourse and debate. In the Act of 1973, the policy outlined was that provisions would be made for listing species, as well as for recovery plans and designation of critical habitats would be founded for these species (Endangered 1973). It is somewhat fitting that a topic of such controversy would be put into law by a controversial Commander and Chief. President Richard Millhouse Nixon signed the Endangered Species legislation officially into law on the 28th day of December, 1973. Although the Act itself only came to the foreground of political attention during this era and the decade before it, attempts had been made to create similar types of legislation for nearly a century before that.
Endangered Species Act (1973): This act protects and recuperate the endangered species in our country.
Environmentalists argue that there is a limit to the amount of species extinctions that particular ecosystems, and even the entire globe, can endure. The Act amended previous endangered species laws to place greater emphasis on ecosystem preservation as a way to prevent the extinction of certain species. This Act seeks to preserve the aesthetic experience of being able to see certain species roaming their natural habitat.
Save the Bald Eagles! Save the whales! Save the Mountain Lions! Such were the environmentalists rallying cries that brought about the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Although, the first official endangered species legislation was a 1966 bill that called for saving U.S. wildlife, but lacked the powers to do so. The Endangered Species Act(ESA) of 1973 set forth the basic rules that apply in the U.S. today. Two agencies, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, are responsible for reviewing the status of species in trouble to see if they warrant listing as either threatened or endangered. The decision is to be based solely on scientific data rather than social factors, such
It is up for debate as to whether the ESA is effective as is, or should be modified. Some believe that it has not been very effective since only 1% of species listed have been delisted. I am thankful that we have the ESA in place even if fewer species than expected have been saved. Without it, none would have been saved and far more would have gone extinct. Even though the ESA focuses on endangered species and their habitats, there are countless other species (endangered or not) that have been protected by
United States have announced climate changes globally caused alarm that allows European involvement to work together for the purpose to slowdown process of extinction species. It have occurred throughout our planets many species developed as other die out balance the ecosystem in result spices are loss for ever. The importance of these concern have accelerated extinctions can be directly caused to human impact upon the natural environment in the form of hunting, fishing, agriculture, development, pollution, habitat encroachment and disease (European Union). I n 1973 the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was established to represent important environmental laws success stories. In corresponded with Carlos Aim Endangered Species Act
The main goal of the Endangered Species Act is conserving endangered and threatened species and the ecosystem on which they depend(Endangered Species, 51). One of the greatest strengths is its foundation in scientific principles(Bily, 52). Habitat protection is essential if species are to be conserved and the goals of the Endangered Species Act are to be met(Bily,53). Habitat provides the unique food, shelter, and other complex requirement that each species needs to survive(Bily, 53). The listing process needs to proceed as promptly as possible(Bily, 53). Objective scientific information and methods should be used in listing species(Bily, 52). Their use in listing decisions is inconsistent with biologically defense principles(Bily, 53) Thirty-five percent of the animals listed are still stable or has increased(Bily, 51). Ten percent of the candidate species still waiting to be on the list have suffered that fall(Endangered Species, 51). Two percent of the animals have had a full recovery(Bily, 52). The animals that have been provided protection has been achieved(Bily, 51) The bald eagle has had a great recovery and its population is growing very well(Bily, 52). According to an article less than one percent of the animals listed have gone extinct(Bily, 51). The recovery of the peregrine falcon is very good(Bily, 52).
Finally in 1982 new amendments stated that animals were allowed to be taken captive and re bread, but today there are still animals that don't get that important help (Endangered species 12) With all the big problems going around right now when it comes to threatened species, not much can top when the Prarie dogs and Black footed ferrets went Endangered. Farmers thought of both those species as pests, so they would grab a gun and kill every single one they saw until few were left, their species count began to dramatically decline leaving 18 black footed ferrets left and a few hundred prairie dogs. With the thousands of black footed ferrets in the world now, they all came from many years ago when they were re-bread in captivity. Evolution means that more than 90 percent of all animal and plant species that have ever lived on earth are now extinct, and about 27,000 species go extinct each year (Greenhaven