Photo Credit: Andy Reago and Chrissy McClarren
The Endangered Species Act – our nation’s most powerful environmental law protecting wildlife
Endangered Species Act Defense
The Endangered Species Act is our nation’s most powerful environmental law protecting wildlife. Today, the most important challenge in protecting endangered species is opposing attempts to weaken or outright overrule the law itself. Also essential is holding the federal government accountable when it underfunds, under-enforces and fails to meet its obligations under the Act.
We are working to safeguard the essential safety net of the Endangered Species Act by actively opposing attempts to undermine the law. We also work to uncover political manipulations and junk science, organize grassroots advocacy, pressure the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to fully implement the law, and demand that Congress fully fund the Act.
We strategically file lawsuits under the Act to compel needed decisions and protections for species on the brink of extinction. We litigate because it is our responsibility as citizens to do so. When the law was passed, Congress in its wisdom understood the government might not always adequately enforce the law and included a citizen suit provision giving us the right to step into the government’s shoes and ensure compliance with this key law. Otherwise, corporate and government greed can corrupt science and send species into oblivion.
Take Action
More than 85 percent of Americans support a strong Endangered Species Act. Supporters come from all backgrounds, cultures, locations, political parties, and perspectives. These diverse voices all agree that our precious natural heritage should be left intact for future generations of wildlife and people.
The Endangered Species Act is wildly successful. Scientists estimate that as of 2006, but for the Act, at least 220 species would have gone extinct. Many of our county’s most iconic species, including the bald eagle, would likely have gone the way of the dodo without the law’s essential protections.
Let’s work together to prevent the extinction of even a single species of native wildlife on our watch. Defend our nation’s most powerful environmental law by joining millions of other citizens in being an Endangered Species Act Guardian.
Science Under Siege
Sound science, not sounds-good science, should always guide decisions about Endangered Species Act listings, yet political whims and junk science or an outright hostility to science too often undermine the Act’s effectiveness. In an effort to enhance corporate profits and marginalize the public interest, the federal government has ignored good science and relied on questionable “science” to work to weaken regulations and laws protecting imperiled wildlife.
The tactics used to under-implement the Endangered Species Act include censoring independent scientific research, underfunding key programs like the listing program itself and recovery plan development, manipulating or ignoring data, silencing government biologists, interfering in the peer review process, attacking watchdog groups that counter political meddling, and stacking the deck with industry-friendly “biologists” whose scientific integrity extends no further than their paychecks.
How You Can Help
Help protect the incredible, vulnerable wildlife of the West! Be a guardian for the wild by joining the conversation, learning about current issues, and making your voice heard. Together, we're a powerful force for nature.
Recent Stories From Wildlife
Equilibrium
This piece appeared in Michael P. Berman’s book, “Gila: Radical Visions/The Enduring Silence,” published in 2012
Why the Endangered Species Act matters
The Endangered Species Act, passed nearly unanimously in 1973, is one of our nation’s most important and successful laws. Here are a few reasons why.
Wildlife Press
Feds’ Fur Export Approvals Violate Endangered Species Act
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Read more >Time for Game and Fish to dump trapping
“Take a child hunting, fishing or trapping.” Hunting and angling – when done right and informed by the best available science – are fair-chase pursuits of food and learning. Trapping is, at best, a financial net-zero activity that perpetuates cruelty, privatizes a public resource, and endangers the safety of people, companion animals and imperiled species.
Read more >Federal biologists struggle for solutions after grizzly bears again listed as threatened
After a federal judge renewed endangered species protections for all grizzly bears in September, state, tribal and federal agencies are trying to decide their next move. If there is no appeal, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee will need to decide how to deal with both the Yellowstone and NCDE populations.
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