Endangered Species Act
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The Endangered Species Act is a federal law that mandates the listing and conservation of endangered and threatened species. The legislation is meant to prevent the extinction of vulnerable species throughout the United States and to recover a species' population to the point where listing the species as endangered or threatened is no longer necessary. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for the law's implementation.[1][2]
The federal government maintains a list of federally protected animal and plant species. The law prohibits the taking of a listed species. Taking includes harming, pursuing, hunting, killing, capturing, or collecting a member of a federally listed species.[3]
As of May 2016, there were 2,389 endangered and threatened species protected under the Endangered Species Act in the 50 states. Hawaii contained the most protected species—434 species. Vermont contained the fewest species—five species.
Key features
Regulatory authority
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) administer the Endangered Species Act. The FWS oversees terrestrial and freshwater organisms while the NMFS oversees marine wildlife.[4]
List of endangered species
The Endangered Species Act mandates a federal list of endangered and threatened species. An endangered species is "in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range." A threatened species is "likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future."[4]
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) may designate a species as endangered or threatened based on the following five factors:[4][5][6]
| “ |
(A) the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; (B) overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; (C) disease or predation; (D) the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or (E) other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence.[7] |
” |
| —Endangered Species Act[6] | ||
To list a species, the federal government must initiate a formal rule with an opportunity for public comment. The federal government also maintains a list of candidate species, which are qualified for the federal list of endangered and threatened species but are not placed on the list due to higher priority listing actions.[4]
Taking prohibition
The Endangered Species Act prohibits the taking of a member of a listed species without a federal permit. To take a species means "to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct" with listed species. Federal regulations further define harm to a species as "an act which actually kills or injures wildlife. Such act may include significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering." Harassment of a listed animal species is "an intentional or negligent act or omission which creates the likelihood of injury to wildlife by annoying it to such an extent as to significantly disrupt normal behavioral patterns which include, but are not limited to, breeding, feeding, or sheltering."[4]
The Endangered Species Act requires the federal government to establish recovery plans for listed species. Recovery plans "describe the steps needed to restore a species to ecological health" in order to delist the species, an action that removes federal protection from a species after threats to its recovery have been eliminated or reduced. Recovery plans are developed and implemented by the FWS and the NMFS in association with other federal, state, and local agencies as well as nongovernmental organizations.[4][6]
Listed species
The table below summarizes the list of endangered and threatened species under the Endangered Species Act as of May 11, 2016.[8]
| Listing of endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (as of May 11, 2016) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | United States | Foreign | Total listings (U.S. and foreign) | U.S. listings with active recovery plans | ||||
| Endangered | Threatened | Total listings | Endangered | Threatened | Total listings | |||
| Animal | 497 | 201 | 698 | 586 | 84 | 670 | 1,368 | 482 |
| Plant | 732 | 166 | 898 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 901 | 676 |
| Total | 1,229 | 367 | 1,596 | 587 | 86 | 673 | 2,269 | 1,158 |
| Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Summary of Listed Species, Listed Populations and Recovery Plans," accessed May 11, 2016 | ||||||||
Below are the status codes used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to classify species and ecosystems as of August 2014.[9]
| Endangered Species Act status codes | |
|---|---|
| Status Code | Description |
| E | Endangered |
| T | Threatened |
| EmE | Emergency Listing, Endangered |
| EmT | Emergency Listing Threatened |
| EXPE, XE | Experimental Population, Essential |
| EXPN, XN | Experimental Population, Non-Essential |
| SAE, E(S/A) | Similarity of Appearance to an Endangered Taxon |
| SAT, T(S/A) | Similarity of Appearance to a Threatened Taxon |
| PE | Proposed Endangered |
| PT | Proposed Threatened |
| PEXPE, PXE | Proposed Experimental Population, Essential |
| PEXPN, PXN | Proposed Experimental Population, Non-Essential |
| PSAE, PE(S/A) | Proposed Similarity of Appearance to an Endangered Taxon |
| PSAT, PT(S/A) | Proposed Similarity of Appearance to a Threatened Taxon |
| C | Candidate Taxon, Ready for Proposal |
| D3A | Delisted Taxon, Evidently Extinct |
| D3B | Delisted Taxon, Invalid Name in Current Scientific Opinion |
| D3C | Delisted Taxon, Recovered |
| DA | Delisted Taxon, Amendment of the Act |
| DM | Delisted Taxon, Recovered, Being Monitored First Five Years |
| DO | Delisted Taxon, Original Commercial Data Erroneous |
| DP | Delisted Taxon, Discovered Previously Unknown Additional Populations and/or Habitat |
| DR | Delisted Taxon, Taxonomic Revision (Improved Understanding) |
| AD | Proposed Delisting |
| AE | Proposed Reclassification to Endangered |
| AT | Proposed Reclassification to Threatened |
Listed species by state
The table below summarizes the number of endangered and threatened species in each state as of May 2016. The data below is based on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) estimate of where federally listed species are believed to or known to occur based on the best available information.[10]
Background
Congress passed federal species protection legislation in 1900 in response to a decline in passenger pigeons and other game birds. Other acts passed included the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the 1929 Migratory Bird Conservation Act.[11]
Congress passed the Endangered Species Preservation Act (ESPA) of 1966, a predecessor to the current Endangered Species Act, in response to a decline in bald eagle populations. The law permitted listing animal species native to the United States as endangered and provided federal protection for listed species. The U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Defense became responsible for the 1966 law's implementation and enforcement. ESPA also authorized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire land and establish habitats for the preservation of endangered species. The act was amended and renamed the Endangered Species Conservation Act in 1969.[12][13]
On February 8, 1972, in a statement detailing his proposed environmental program, President Richard Nixon (R) called on Congress to pass "a stronger law to protect endangered species of wildlife." Nixon issued the following remarks:[14]
| “ | It has only been in recent years that efforts have been undertaken to list and protect those species of animals whose continued existence is in jeopardy. Starting with our national symbol, the bald eagle, we have expanded our concern over the extinction of these animals to include the present list of over 100. We have already found, however, that even the most recent act to protect endangered species, which dates only from 1969, simply does not provide the kind of management tools needed to act early enough to save a vanishing species.[7] | ” |
| —President Richard Nixon[14] | ||
Legislative history
See bill: Endangered Species Act
Senator Harrison A. Williams (D-New Jersey) introduced the Endangered Species Act in the U.S. Senate on June 12, 1973. The Senate unanimously approved the bill on July 24, 1973. The U.S. House approved a version of the bill on September 18, 1973, by a 390-12 vote. A joint conference committee was convened to reconcile the Senate and House versions. The conference committee reported the bill on December 19, 1973. On the same day, the House and the Senate approved the legislation. President Richard Nixon (R) signed the Endangered Species Act into law on December 28, 1973.[15]
The law was amended in 1978, 1982, and 1988.[12]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Endangered Species Act. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Implementation of the Endangered Species Act
- Endangered species
- Glossary of Endangered Species Act terms
Footnotes
- ↑ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Improving ESA Implementation," accessed May 15, 2015
- ↑ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "ESA Overview," accessed October 1, 2014
- ↑ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "ESA Basics," accessed September 26, 2014
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "ESA Basics: 40 Years of Conserving Endangered Species," January 1, 2013
- ↑ National Marine Fisheries Service, "Listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)," accessed August 13, 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Endangered Species Act of 1973 as Amended through the 108th Congress," accessed August 13, 2014
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Summary of Listed Species, Listed Populations and Recovery Plans," accessed May 11, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Endangered Species Act Status Codes," accessed August 11, 2014
- ↑ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Species listed in each state based on published historic range and population data," accessed July 6, 2015
- ↑ Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, "The Endangered Species Act," accessed August 13, 2014
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "A History of the Endangered Species Act of 1973," August 1, 2011
- ↑ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Questions and Answers about Bald Eagles Recovery and Delisting," accessed August 13, 2014
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The American Presidency Project, "Richard Nixon - Special Message to Congress Outlining the 1972 Environmental Program," February 8, 1972
- ↑ The Library of Congress, "Bill Summary and Status - 93rd Congress - S. 1893 - All Congressional Actions with Amendments," accessed August 13, 2014
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