The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is recognized around the world as the most important wildlife conservation law ever passed. This critical, and sometimes controversial, protection for species and their habitat turns 50 years old in 2023.
It is seen as the crown jewel of all environmental laws, cherished for protecting beloved charismatic species and their habitat and ecosystems. It is also vilified as an intrusion upon private property rights and an impediment to both local government and private enterprise. The hope is that with active stewardship from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, together with private sector collaborative conservation, it can carry on for another 50 years. Here we explore the history and success stories of the Endangered Species Act, and its future opportunities.
The conservation successes and challenges of the first 50 years of this law point towards future strategies for more effective and less controversial conservation, including legislative, regulatory, and collaborative approaches. The two-volume Codex of the Endangered Species Act explores the history of the Endangered Species Act and its success (Volume I) and the possibilities for even greater achievements in the future (Volume II).
Earth's Emergency Room
Saving Species as the Planet and Politics Get Hotter
Earth’s Emergency Room: Saving Species as the Planet and Politics Get Hotter is a celebration of 50 years of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). Author, attorney, and environmental historian Lowell Baier provides an insightful and entertaining history of the ESA’s dramatic highs and lows. He profiles his own work with the ESA from its inception to the present, and with the key figures who shaped its history, from field biologists to Presidents of the United States. Baier calls on all Americans to embrace a spirit of bipartisanship and conservation to strengthen the law that has been the Earth’s emergency room for half a century.
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The conservation successes and challenges of the first fifty years of this law point towards future strategies for more effective and less controversial conservation under it, including legislative, regulatory, and collaborative approaches. The Codex of the Endangered Species Act explores the history of the Endangered Species Act and its success (Volume I) and possibilities for even greater achievements in the future (Volume II).
