Thirty-four years ago today, President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. It is the only source of legal protection for most plants and animals threatened with extinction in the United States.1
The act came into being as Americans grew increasingly aware of the damage being done to the environment – and the threat posed to specific animal and plant species -- by rampant economic growth.2
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's boxscore reports 1046 species listed as endangered and 305 listed as threatened in the United States, and there are an additional 280 species that are candidates for listing as threatened or endangered.
The purposes of [the Endangered Species] Act are to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved, to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered species and threatened species, and to take such steps as may be appropriate to achieve the purposes of the treaties and conventions set forth in subsection (a) of this section.3
1Marine mammals are also protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Migratory birds and waterfowl are protected by various international treaties in addition to federal laws.
2“Dec. 28, 1973: Endangered Species Get a Helping Hand,” by Tony Long, Wired.
3The treaties and conventions are
A) migratory bird treaties with Canada and Mexico; (B) the Migratory and Endangered Bird Treaty with Japan; (C) the Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere; (D) the International Convention for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries; (E) the International Convention for the High Seas Fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean; (F) the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; and (G) other international agreements.
The text is from U.S. Code, Title 16, Chapter 35, Section 1531.
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