Key Federal Conservation Law Turns 50: The Endangered Species Act
Congress passed the landmark Endangered Species Act (ESA), P.L. 93–205, on a vote of 92 to 0 in the Senate and 355 to 4 in the House. This overwhelming support, sparked by the growing environmental protection movement, led President Nixon to sign the law fifty years ago on December 28, 1973.
The law directs the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to identify species that are threatened or endangered and coordinate and implement recovery plans. The ESA protects not only fish and wildlife, but plants as well.
Support for the ESA has been mixed, especially when protection clashes with economic development. An early conflict over the law is a case popularly known as the Snail Darter Case. Advocates challenged the completion of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Tellico Dam which was expected to drive the endangered snail darter fish to extinction by destroying habitat.
The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153 (1978), which held that the Tellico Dam project was not exempt from the ESA. This was so even though it was under construction at the time of the passage of the Act and Congress continued to appropriate funds despite the listing of the snail darter as an endangered species. Dam proponents in Congress amended the ESA in 1979 to exclude its application to the Tellico Dam project and the dam was completed.
But that’s not the end of the story for the snail darter. Yale’s School of the Environment reports:
To save the snail darter, biologists transplanted the fish into the nearby Hiawassee and Holston rivers, and other waterways, while the Tennessee Valley Authority altered the operation of the Tellico Dam to release more oxygen-rich water downstream. A drop in water pollution following river cleanup under the Clean Water Act further boosted the fish’s recovery. The snail darter joins more than 50 other plants and animals that have recovered under federal protection, including American alligators, humpback whales, peregrine falcons, and bald eagles.
Unfortunately, not all of the listings under the ESA have been successful, with a number of species going extinct despite protection. One contributing factor is that species wait a median of 12.1 years to receive protection. Twenty-one species were delisted from the ESA in October due to extinction, including the Bachman’s warbler, a bird found in Florida and South Carolina, and the large Kauai thrush, one of a number of birds from Hawaii that were delisted.
In the Northwest significant conflict ensued after listing of the northern spotted owl, Snake River populations of salmon, gray wolves, and Mazama pocket gophers. In November the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listed the North American wolverine in the lower 48 states as a threatened distinct population. The 300 or so wolverines spread in the Northern Rockies and Northern Cascades were successfully protected through litigation by the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians.
State law also protects endangered animal species with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) responsible for listing threatened and endangered species. The WDFW also works with other agencies to implement and enforce the federal ESA. Learn more about ESA milestones, pre-1973 to today, from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Library and read about the Bald Eagle and other iconic species that have made a remarkable comeback here.
Find detailed information about federal and state threatened endangered species and conservation plans at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Environmental Conservation Online System, the NOAA Fisheries ESA Threatened & Endangered Species Directory, Washington’s Natural Heritage Program’s Rare Plant Species Lists, and the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Threatened and Endangered Species Search.
In the Library
Books in our collection are available to check out by coming into the library. You can also request them through interlibrary loan at your home library. Contact the reference desk at Library.Requests@courts.wa.gov or 360–357–2136 with questions, or place a hold in our online catalog using your library account.
Some of our titles related to the ESA include:
Endangered Species Act: Law, Policy, and Perspectives edited by Donald C. Baur and Ya-Wei Li
Pacific Salmon Law and the Environment: Treaties, Endangered Species, Dam Removal, Climate Change, and Beyond by Michael C. Blumm
Wildlife Law, Regulation, and Falconry: An Analysis of Legal Principles by William J. Murrin & Harold M. Webster, Jr.
The ABCs of Environmental Regulation by Albert I. Telsey, Esq.
Endangered and Other Protected Species: Federal Law and Regulation by Richard Littell
Environmental Law, 3d by Elizabeth Burleson (available on Research Room computers only)
State Environmental Law by Kenneth A. Manaster and Daniel P. Selmi (available on Research Room computers only) (RM)
