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Endangered Species Act of 1973

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting and conserving imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation", the ESA was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973. The Supreme Court of the United States described it as "the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species enacted by any nation".[1] The purposes of the ESA are two-fold: to prevent extinction and to recover species to the point where the law's protections are not needed. It therefore "protect[s] species and the ecosystems upon which they depend" through different mechanisms. For example, section 4 requires the agencies overseeing the Act to designate imperiled species as threatened or endangered. Section 9 prohibits unlawful ‘take,’ of such species, which means to "harass, harm, hunt..." Section 7 directs federal agencies to use their authorities to help conserve listed species. The Act also serves as the enacting legislation to carry out the provisions outlined in The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).[2] The 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."[1] The Act is administered by two federal agencies, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).[3] FWS and NMFS have been delegated by the Act with the authority to promulgate any rules and guidelines within the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to implement its provisions.

Other short titles

Endangered Species Act of 1973

An Act to provide for the conservation of endangered and threatened species of fish, wildlife, and plants, and for other purposes.

ESA

Endangered Species Conservation Act

December 27, 1973

16 U.S.C. ch. 35 §§ 1531-1544.

The federal government must determine whether species are endangered or threatened. If so, they must list the species for protection under the ESA (Section 4).

If determinable, must be designated for listed species (Section 4).

critical habitat

Absent certain limited situations (Section 10), it is illegal to "take" an endangered species (Section 9). "Take" can mean kill, harm, or harass (Section 3).

Federal agencies will use their authorities to conserve endangered species and threatened species (Section 7).

Federal agencies cannot jeopardize listed species' existence or destroy (Section 7).

critical habitat

Any import, export, interstate, and foreign commerce of listed species is generally prohibited (Section 9).

Endangered fish or wildlife cannot be taken without a take permit. This also applies to certain threatened animals with section 4(d) rules (Section 10).

(increased from 417 to 11,040 pairs between 1963 and 2007); removed from list 2007

Bald eagle

(increased from 54 to 436 birds between 1967 and 2003)

Whooping crane

(increased from 210 to 1,415 pairs between 1971 and 2005)

Kirtland's warbler

(increased from 324 to 1,700 pairs between 1975 and 2000); removed from list 1999

Peregrine falcon

(populations increased dramatically in the Northern Rockies and Western Great Lakes States)

Gray wolf

(increased to minimum population of 109 wolves in 2014 in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona)

Mexican wolf

(increased from 17 in 1980 to 257 in 2003)

Red wolf

(increased from 13,095 to 26,635 whales between 1968 and 1998); removed from list (Debated because whaling was banned before the ESA was set in place and that the ESA had nothing to do with the natural population increase since the cease of massive whaling [excluding Native American tribal whaling])

Gray whale

(increased from about 271 to over 580 bears in the Yellowstone area between 1975 and 2005)

Grizzly bear

(increased from 1,789 in 1976 to 2,735 in 2005)

California's southern sea otter

(increased from 500 plants in 1979 to more than 3,500 in 1997)

San Clemente Indian paintbrush

(increased from 200 in 1971 to 750 in 2001)

Florida's Key deer

(increased from a couple dozen to a population of over 50,000)

Big Bend gambusia

(increased from 400 birds in 1980 to 1,275 in 2003)

Hawaiian goose

(increased from 3,500 in 1979 to 18,442 in 2004)

Virginia big-eared bat

(increased from 18 in 1986 to 600 in 2006)

Black-footed ferret

Section-by-Section Summaries of the 1973 Act[edit]

Section 4: Listing and Recovery[edit]

Section 4 of the ESA sets forth the process by which species are designated as endangered or threatened. Species with these designations receive protections under federal law. Section 4 also requires critical habitat designation and recovery plans for those species.

Critical habitat

Endangered Species Act Amendments of 1978

List of endangered species in North America

Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill

Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife

Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered mammals and birds

Brown, Gardner M., and Jason F. Shogren. "Economics of the endangered species act." Journal of Economic Perspectives 12.3 (1998): 3-20.

online

Carroll, Ronald, et al. "Strengthening the use of science in achieving the goals of the Endangered Species Act: an assessment by the Ecological Society of America." Ecological Applications 6.1 (1996): 1–11.

online

Corn, M. Lynne and Alexandra M. Wyatt. Congressional Research Service 2016.

The Endangered Species Act: A Primer.

Czech, Brian, and Paul R. Krausman. The endangered species act: history, conservation biology, and public policy (JHU Press, 2001).

Doremus, Holly. "Listing decisions under the Endangered Species Act: why better science isn't always better policy." Washington U Law Quarterly 75 (1997): 1029+

online

Doremus, Holly. "Adaptive Management, the Endangered Species Act, and the Institutional Challenges of New Age Environmental Protection." Washburn Law Journal 41 (2001): 50+ .

online

Easter-Pilcher, Andrea. "Implementing the endangered species act." Bioscience 46.5 (1996): 355–363.

online

Goble, Dale; Scott, J. Michael; Davis, F. W., eds. (2006). The Endangered Species Act at Thirty: Vol. 1: Renewing the Conservation Promise. Washington, DC: Island Press.  1597260096. excerpt

ISBN

Green, Alan; The Center for Public Integrity (1999). . Public Affairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-374-6.

Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species

Leshy, John D. "The Babbitt Legacy at the Department of the Interior: A Preliminary View." Environmental Law 31 (2001): 199–227.

online

Noss, Reed F., Michael O'Connell, and Dennis D. Murphy. The science of conservation planning: habitat conservation under the Endangered Species Act (Island Press, 1997).

Petersen, Shannon. "Congress and charismatic megafauna: A legislative history of the endangered species act" Environmental Law 29 (1999): 463–491.

Schwartz, Mark W. "The performance of the endangered species act." in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 39 (2008) .

online

Stanford Environmental Law Society (2001). (Illustrated ed.). Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804738432.

The Endangered Species Act

Taylor, Martin FJ, Kieran F. Suckling, and Jeffrey J. Rachlinski. "The effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act: a quantitative analysis." BioScience 55.4 (2005): 360–367.

online

of the United States Code from the LII

As codified in 16 U.S.C. chapter 35

of the United States Code from the US House of Representatives

As codified in 16 U.S.C. chapter 35

(PDF/details) as amended in the GPO Statute Compilations collection

Endangered Species Act of 1973

accessed July 25, 2005, The 1995 decision on whether significant habitat modifications on private property that actually kill species constitute "harm" for purposes of the ESA.

Cornell University Law School-Babbit v. Sweet Home

accessed July 25, 2005

Center for Biological Diversity

accessed June 16, 2012

Endangered Species Program – US Fish & Wildlife Service

accessed June 16, 2012

Endangered Species Act – National Marine Fisheries Service – NOAA

accessed June 16, 2012

Species Status Categories and Codes – US Fish & Wildlife Service

accessed June 16, 2012

Habitat Conservation Plans – US Fish & Wildlife Service

accessed July, 2005

The 1978 decision related to the ESA and the snail darter.

accessed June 16, 2012

Summary of Listed Species Listed Populations and Recovery Plans – US Fish & Wildlife Service

accessed June 16, 2012

Species Search – US Fish & Wildlife Service

accessed June 16, 2012

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations: List of endangered species