Proactive Conservation Efforts Result in Rare Species Recoveries

In the wake of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s historic announcement that unprecedented conservation efforts have avoided the need to list the Greater Sage-Grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Sand County Foundation has released a report showing how grouse and several other iconic species have benefited from proactive private-public partnerships spurred by the ESA. 

The stories of the grouse, swift fox, Louisiana black bear (the inspiration for the “Teddy Bear”), Karner Blue butterfly, Arctic grayling and Mountain Plover demonstrate how Americans work proactively, and often creatively, to maintain species' populations so they don't require the protections of the ESA.

Originally enacted in 1973, the ESA “was a reaction to the growing awareness that our wildlife heritage was at risk. It was designed initially to be an emergency room for wildlife in crisis,” said the Sand County report. “The goal of conservation is to keep a species from declining to the point of becoming endangered. In fact, a decision not to list a species (a non-listing) could be perceived as an indication that the ESA is working—since the prospect of a listing is a powerful incentive for governments and private landowners to collaborate to both restore species to a point where they are secure and turn them around well before they need protection. The nation is now approaching 100 plant and animal recoveries or avoided listings.”

Thanks in large part to public-private partnerships that incentivize land managers to act by exempting them from ESA penalties or financing conservation efforts, the cases in this report all look at how different kinds of land managers—from an army training base to timber companies to ranchers—have worked to turn back the tide on rare species that were facing significant population declines.

The report comes on the heels of the sage-grouse decision and just as other success stories—such as that of the New England Cottontail rabbit—are being announced by USFWS. Meanwhile, some members of Congress are attacking the ESA or calling for heavy reforms.

“In the 1930s, when Aldo Leopold articulated a vision of land as a community that includes animals, plants, soils, water and people, he poignantly framed the wildlife conservation challenge as ‘How shall we conserve wildlife without evicting ourselves?’” the report observes. “There is no doubt people possess the power to determine the fate of species and the habitats upon which they depend.”