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Endangered Species Act continued

Aruba Island

Rattlesnake

Act Under Attack

Since it was signed into law in 1973 with bipartisan support, species that were showing improvement became endangered
the Endangered Species Act has enjoyed overwhelming support again, reversing dozens of years of progress. (Many recovery
from the American public. The Act is more important today plans estimate a recovery period of 50 years or more.)
than ever. More than 1 million species of plants and animals face Another strategy to weaken the Act has been to starve the
extinction, according to a 2019 report from the United Nations’ agencies of the funding they need to carry out and enforce it.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Lack of resources has hampered species-recovery efforts: Active
Ecosystem Services. This is more biodiversity loss than at any recovery plans do not exist for nearly 20 percent of listed
other time in human history. domestic species, the listing process from petition to ESA
Yet a slew of ESA amendments and new legislation have been listing takes a median of 12 years, and there is a backlog of
proposed—and some passed—that weaken protections for specific hundreds of species. Conservation groups have filed multiple ultiple
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listed species and the Act as a whole. These include amendments lawsuits to force the agencies to comply with the law.
passed by Congress in 2019 that have made it easier to delist Efforts to weaken or deauthorize the Act are largely
species and diminish protections for certain others. The FWS and driven by groups and industries—including oil and
the NMFS can consider the economic impact of adding a species gas, mining, logging, ranching, and sport hunting—
to the Endangered Species List—such as the costs to be borne that blame the ESA for slowing economic growth and
by industries, governments, and landowners. Previously, the ESA encroaching on the rights of property owners and states.
stated that only the best scientific data available were to be used The current administration rolled back some, but not all,
by the agencies in their listing determinations. of the 2019 amendments and slightly increased funding for the
There have also been repeated efforts to take certain species FWS. However, battles are being fought all over the country
off the Endangered Species List, particularly the grey wolf and in courts and state houses, and on the floors of Congress.
Yellowstone’s grizzly bears. Where these efforts have succeeded,
34 GATEWAYS | ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT