Rare Species In Colorado Increasing In Number

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 Colorado, few peregrine falcons remained by the late 1970s; however, in 1997 at least 81 pairs were counted in the state. A total of 107 peregrine nesting sites are now known, up from 27 before the DDT-induced decline. On August 26, 1998, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing the peregrine falcon from the endangered species list. Bald eagles are increasing in number in Colorado, where 29 pairs occupied territories in 1997, up from 10 in 1990. On July 12, 1995, the bald eagle was reclassified from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states.

Colorado residents and visitors were recently beneficiaries of the California condor reintroduction in the Grand Canyon area of Arizona. In August 1998, three of the endangered birds flew 250 miles up the Colorado river drainage and stopped at the Land’s End Visitors Center on Colorado’s Grand Mesa.

Colorado’s state fish, the threatened greenback cutthroat trout, is now found in 20 self-sustaining populations, just two short of the recovery goal.

“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.