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Page Outline:

1. Basic Facts
2. Endangered or Not Endangered?
3. Money or the Manatee: The Economic Impact of the Protection of Endangered Species in America
4. What Is Washington Doing?
5. Sources

Basic Facts

(As of 9-20-2008)

The following statistics come from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.¹

• 609 animal species are listed as endangered in the U.S.

• 746 plant species are listed as endangered in the U.S.

• 520 species have “designated critical habitat.”

• There are 144 animal and 138 plant species in the United States on the endangered species candidate list.

To access daily updated information on which American species are on the endangered species list, visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Threatened and Endangered Species System webpage.

Endangered or Not Endangered?

What’s the Criteria?

The following bullet points written by Joy Nicholopoulus provides the criteria by which the Endangered Species Act “determine[s] whether or not a species should be listed as endangered or threatened.”

• The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of the species’ habitat or range;
• Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes;
• disease or predation;
• the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms
• other natural or manmade factors affecting the species’ continued existence

For an in depth description of the endangered species listing process, read, “The Endangered Species Listing Program,” an article available on the ESA’s website.

Money or the Manatee: The Economic Impact of the Protection of Endangered Species in America

Economic Costs

In a 2006 United States Government Accountability Office review of the “time and costs to recover” endangered species, it was found that the price tag on recovering a species and the time-table for doing it were “largely unknown” by the EPA. The highest EPA estimate of “recovering” an endangered species that the USGAO found was the EPA’s plan to recover a bird called the Whooping crane. The cost was $125 million. On the other end of the spectrum, the USGAO found that the EPA’s lowest cost plan for recovering a species was for that of the “Decurrent false aster—a flowering plant in Illinois and Missouri.” The price tag for recovering the decurrent false aster was $58,000. Several hundred other species well between these two extremes.²

According to a 2004 study conducted by the conservative Property & Environment Research Center, the conservation/protection efforts of the EPA in regard to endangered species may cost the EPA and American citizens as much as $3.5 billion per year. Within that same study, it was stated that the EPA has previously listed its annual costs at only $600 million³

Economic and Other Benefits

Some endangered species, plants and animals, play, or have the potential to play an important role in the agricultural industry. One such species is a plant called the walker’s manioc. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

Walker’s manioc is an endangered plant endemic to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It is closely related to an important crop plant, cassava, which is a staple food in many parts of the world. Walker’s manioc could contain genes that provide salt, drought, cold, or disease resistance for strains of commercial cassava.⁴

According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife publication, protecting endangered species from extinction may, among other things, provide humans with new medicines with which to fight certain diseases.

A few hundred wild species have stocked our pharmacies with antibiotics, anti-cancer agents, pain killers, and blood thinners. The biochemistry of unexamined species is an unfathomed reservoir of new and potentially more effective substances.⁵

Some species, such as the gray wolf, play an important role in balancing the ecosystem in which they live. At one point on the brink of extinction, the gray wolf was re-introduced to Yellowstone National Park with tremendously positive results. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

When wolves were restored to Yellowstone National Park, they started to control the park’s large population of elk, which had been over consuming the willows, aspen, and other trees that grew along streams. The recovery of these trees is cooling stream flows, which benefits native trout, and increases nesting habitat for migratory birds. Beavers now have willow branches to eat, and beaver dams create marshland habitat for otters, mink, and ducks.⁶

What Is Washington Doing?

Environmental Protection Agency

In addition to being involved in the listing/delisting of endangered species, the EPA is also heavily involved in environmental conservation.

If you find out that you have an endangered species living on your land, what should you do? This question and similar ones are answered by the EPA’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the publication, “Tools for Helping Imperiled Wildlife on Private Lands.”

US Fish and Wildlife Service

On the “Endangered Species Program” webpage of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, you will find up to date information regarding federal work with endagered species. To view the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fall 2008 endangered species bulletin, click here.

Endangered Species Act

This act ensures that the “government protects endangered and threatened plants and animals (listed species) and the habitats upon which they depend.”⁷

The ESA is enforced by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Department of Commerce. These organizations also list/delist species, design critical habitats, and create recovery plans.⁸

On December 11, 2008, the Bush Administration “eliminated 35-year-old regulations in the Endangered Species Act that required an independent scientific review of proposed federal projects to determine whether they imperil protected plants and animals.”⁹ As a result, “federal agencies undertaking projects like road and power plant construction or oil and gas drilling will make their own assessment.”¹⁰ While the elimination of the regulations will undoubtably fast-track certain federal projects, it also means the loss of an important safety measure to ensure that no harm comes to endangered species and or their environments. However, “Officials said [federal] agencies would still be held liable if they approved projects that harmed threatened or endangered species.” ¹¹ After the Bush Administration’s decision to remove the regulations was made known to the public, “President-elect Barack Obama said he would reverse the rule changes, as have some members of Congress. But that requires a lengthy rule-making process. In the House, members can invoke the rarely used Congressional Review Act to overturn the regulations.” ¹²

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