Endangered Species: Keystone Law or Waste of Money?

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When the congress passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, it recognized that ecological and scientific valued our nation and its people. It also expressed concern that many of our nation’s native plants and animals were in danger of becoming extinct. The purpose of ESA is to protect and recover species in their ecosystems, for which they have lived on. Under the ESA, species are specified into two categories; endangered or threatened. ‘Endangered’ means a species that is in danger of becoming extinct and has exceeded all of its range. ‘Threatened’ means that a species is likely to become extinct in the near future. The idea of the ESA is to protect all these species, with the exception of the endangered and threatened list, from ultimately going into extinction (fws.org). So, the controversial question that has been pondered for forty years is, is the ESA law one nation needs, or is it just a waste of money?
According to the USFWS, on April 3, 2007, forty-one species have been delisted. Sixteen species were delisted due to recovery, nineteen due to extinction, nine due to changes in taxonomic classification, five due to discovery on new populations, one due to error on listing, and one due to the requirements in the ESA species listing (fws.org). This is why some people are unsure whether or not the ESA law is effective or not.
One success story is with the Aletuian Canada Goose even before the ESA was established. After small populations of geese were found in Alaska, the geese were listed under the endangered species in 1967. It was later found that the geese were going into extinction because of nonnative foxes and hunters. After this, the nonnative foxes were controlled, their nesting habitat was protected with the...

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Miller, Julie K. Scott, Michael J. Miller, Craig R. 2002. The Endangered Species Act: Dollars and Sense. BioScience (Internet). 52: 163-168. Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com.library.aurora.edu/ehost/detail?vid=16&sid=7238f0b4-29d6-4dea-aa14-8230c385b214%40sessionmgr114&hid=120&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVybCx1aWQmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl#db=bai&AN=503855244

Neel, Maile C. Leidner, Allison K. Haines, Aaron. Goble, Dale D. Scott, Michael J. 2012. By the Numbers: How is Recovery Defined by the US Endangered Species Act? BioScience (Internet). 62: 646-657. Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com.library.aurora.edu/ehost/detail?vid=7&sid=7238f0b4-29d6-4dea-aa14-8230c385b214%40sessionmgr114&hid=120&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVybCx1aWQmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl#db=bai&AN=77909289 www.fws.gov/endangered/law-policies www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/esa.html
www.esasuccess.org

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