Foreword SAVING AMERICA'S WILDLIFE A lbert Einstein once said, "When we survey our lives and endeavors we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings." Today, five years from the next millennium, the time has come to expand Einstein's point to include all living things. For the truth is that humans are inextricably linked to the natural world. In a sense, the Endangered Species Act is our country's last defense against the destruction of the living natural world. The Act's primary purpose is to conserve the ecosystems upon which threatened and endangered species depend. This means we must protect the habitat that provides food and livelihood for all species of life, including our own. Yet, tragically, the very notion of wildlife protection is under unprecedented political attack in Congress. It has not always been this way. Wildlife and natural resource conservation possess a centuryold bipartisan history, initiated by President Theodore Roosevelt. On signing the Endangered Species Act in 1973, President Nixon stated, "Nothing is more priceless and worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a manyfaceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans." In subsequent reauthorizations, signed by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, the Act continued to enjoy strong bipartisan support. The Act has even been responsible for the recovery of our nation's symbol, the bald eagle. This is Defenders of Wildlife's fourth report on the Endangered Species Act. It is designed to operate as a comprehensive guide for policy makers tasked with reauthorization of the Act during the 104th Congress. Our recommendations are based on several decades of leadership on the Endangered Species Act including supporting the Act and implementation of its safeguards in the Congress, in the courts and in the field. As reflected in our three previous reports, certain themes are as pressing today as they were more than 20 years ago. For example, recovery of species is still SAVING AMERICA'S WILDLIFE too clusive, partly because the Act does not possess binding recovery standards. And funding for endangered species protection remains dangerously sparse. Astonishingly, each American currently spends only 50 cents per year to save wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. A relatively new conservation theme discussed in this report is prevention of endangerment. As with humans, the most economically and biologically sound way to assure wildlife species health is to prevent activities that imperil species in the first place. The science of conservation biology is making strides toward a better understanding of natural laws. Novel free-market economic models are now being used to help resolve development conflicts. These recent advances should be reflected in reauthorizing legislation so that the Act can be more effective for humans and wildlife alike. One of the most compelling justifications for the Endangered Species Act is to protect human welfare itself. Wildlife species possess benefits of enormous although often unquantifiable value. They provide food, medicine and shelter. Interacting in their natural ecosystems, they manufacture the air we breathe, cleanse our water, fertilize the soil, cycle nutrients, decompose waste and control floods and insect pests. And they provide important psychological benefits ranging from relief from the stresses of modern urban society to satisfaction from expressing our ethical duty to safeguard creation. As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Endangered Species Act, we must find better ways to encourage and reward good human stewardship of nature's gifts. Among our most compelling moral obligations must be protecting the natural estate so that we can pass it on to our descendanis in no worse condition than we received it. Clearly we are now failing in that obligation. And we cannot hope to do better without a strong Endangered Species Act and companion legislation that will conserve habitats, ecosystems and the biodiversity on which all life ultimately depends. Rodger Schlickeisen, President James K. Wyerman, Vice President for Program Executive Summary SAVING AMERICA'S WILDLIFE vi S ince its enactment little more than two decades ago, the Endangered Species Act has yielded a long list of success stories. The proposed downlisting of America's national sym bol, the bald eagle, and the recovery of populations of species ranging from gray whales and sea otters to peregrine falcons and brown pelicans testify to the Act's effectiveness. Recent efforts by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce to make the Act's administration more flexible and more responsive to landowner concerns also have achieved marked success. Despite these positive developments, the Endangered Species Act faces unprecedented political assault. States-rights proponents, business factions, private-property organizations and lobbyists from natural-resource-user groups are bombarding lawmakers and the media with horror stories describing how the rigidity of the Act is robbing people of their right to develop private property. Though many of these anecdotes have achieved mythic proportions, little evidence exists to support them. On the contrary, the growing flexibility of the Act shows that it can be implemented effectively and efficiently. RECOMMENDATIONS Defenders of Wildlife recommends that Congress: • Improve the role of science in every facet of the Act. The Act was born of science, and yet science has all but disappeared from the debate over the future of the Endangered Species Act. Recommendations include convening a National Commission on Species Extinction, initiating a scientifically sound system for ranking the urgency of species-protection goals, integrating scientific peer review more thoroughly into the listing process and encouraging the work of the National Biological Service. SAVING AMERICA'S WILDLIFE • Expand measures that prevent the need for listings. Adopting strategies that prevent species declines is the most ecologically efficient and economical means for protecting wild plants and animals and conserving biodiversity. Therefore, Defenders recommends encouraging better management plans for declining species and implementing more preventive management strategies on public lands. Four ESA Realities •The Endangered Species Act benefits both people and wildlife. • The ESA is under unprecedented political assault. • Problems with the ESA are vastly overstated. • The ESA can be simultaneously improved and strengthened. • Provide incentives for private landowners who practice Because private lands are critical to biodiversity conservation, • Expand the role of state governments. State governments and agencies have the knowledge and relationships needed to achieve local conservation successes. To facilitate these successes, more responsibility for candidate-species management and recovery planning and more take-permitting authority should be transferred to the states. Regional ecosystem management planning and opportunities for federal-state partnerships also should be fostered. •Develop secure, long-term funding. Effective conservation cannot occur without adequate funding. To pay for these vital efforts, the report recommends reallocating funds from fiscally obsolete programs, exploiting underutilized programs and creating user-fee funding sources. SAVING AMERICA'S WILDLIFE Organization of the Report This report was prepared by Defenders of Wildlife's lawyers, conservation biologists and • Acquaint the reader with the issues surrounding the single most significant piece of environ- •Add facts and substance to a debate now dominated by hyperbole. • Introduce concrete and sensible recommendations for improving the Act. • Provide a vision for future land-management policy that will take us beyond excessive depen- The Introduction of the report reviews the controversy surrounding the Act, discusses its history and makes general recommendations. Section One demonstrates that extinction affects us all, despite assertions to the contrary. It reviews the scientific arguments for endangered species protection, examines how endangered species enrich human lives and shows how loss of species, leading to a reduction in overall biodiversity, jeopardizes humanity's future. Section Two is designed as a lay person's review of the Act and how it works. Section Three focuses on what can be done to improve species conservation under the Act and provides specific recommendations for its reauthorization. Section Four looks at where conservation and biodiversity protection should go in the future. The Appendix answers ten of the most commonly asked questions about the Endangered Species case studies provided throughout the report highlight key aspects of the Act's |