California Condors, Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly Among Successes

Today, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) marked the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by releasing a state-by-state summary of progress being made to recover once-imperiled wild animals and plants. The well-known legislation, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 28, 1973, was approved nearly unanimously by both Houses of Congress.

“Citizens of every state in this nation can see firsthand in their own state examples of the progress being made in bringing wildlife back from the brink of extinction,” said EDF senior ecologist Dr. David S. Wilcove. Examples of recovering wildlife in the illustrative, but not exhaustive, report range from little-known Hawaiian plants to gray wolves howling in Yellowstone and majestic bald eagles, which again soar over nearly every state.

In California, according to the EDF report, the endangered peregrine falcon reached a low of five to 10 pairs in the early 1970s. In 1997 they occupied 147 nesting sites in the state and the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing the peregrine falcon from the endangered list. The Palos Verdes blue butterfly, which was once believed extinct, has increased from an estimated 100 at the time of its rediscovery to 400-1,000 in early 1997. The endangered least tern is rebounding in the Santa Monica Bay area, where a protective fence has led to an increase from 30 breeding pairs in 1977 to 375 pairs in 1997.

California condors are once again flying free over the state, after an intensive and successful captive breeding effort. As of November 1998, 22 birds were in the wild in California and more than 100 in captivity. The Aleutian goose population is rebounding, and bald eagles have increased from 93 pairs in 1990 to 142 pairs today. The once endangered gray whale has recovered and was removed from the endangered list on June 16, 1994.

“The accomplishments of the Endangered Species Act involve many Americans ? among them the intrepid biologists who scaled trees and cliffs to return bald eagles and peregrine falcons to states from which they had vanished, determined scientists and volunteers who protected sea turtles nesting on the nation’s beaches, the Nez Perce tribe which is overseeing the return of the wolf to Idaho forests, and a young man in California who turned back from a life on the streets to aid a rare butterfly,” said EDF’s Margaret McMillan, who compiled the report.

Though hailing the many successes achieved thus far, the EDF report also noted a critical need to improve conservation efforts on privately owned land. “Because most endangered species have most of their habitat on private land, it is essential that new approaches be found to enlist more landowners as active partners in conservation efforts,” said EDF economist Robert Bonnie. EDF itself has been instrumental in designing one successful new approach, “safe harbor” agreements. Under these, landowners restore or improve habitat, but do not incur additional land use restrictions as a result of endangered species taking up residence on their property as a result of the improvements. Over a million acres of private land has been entered into safe harbor agreements since the novel idea was embraced by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt three years ago.