[Animals] Endangered Species Act

[Wolf.17]

 

A manatee glides through clear, warm spring water in Florida. A grizzly bear catches a juicy trout in Yellowstone National Park. A bald eagle soars near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

A little over 50 years ago, these species were among the first group of animals that received protection from the federal (or national) government in the United States. Once nearly extinct, all three species bounced back thanks to a law called the Endangered Species Act.

Wildlife needs help

Native American people have lived alongside these animals for thousands of years. Although the people changed the animals’ environment—for example, they burned land for farming—they were usually careful not to hunt too many animals, making sure that the po[CENSORED]tion numbers would remain healthy.

But European settlers arriving in the early 1800s had a different relationship to the land: They cut down forests to clear space for their houses and towns, and they hunted as many animals as they wanted for food, materials, and even sport.

 

 

By the end of the 1800s, Americans could see that some species were in big trouble: Due to overhunting, the American bison po[CENSORED]tion went from about 30 million to just a few hundred in less than a century. The passenger pigeon, once the most abundant bird in North America—numbering in the billions—disappeared from the skies in just a few decades because so many people hunted them for sport.

These animals motivated Congress to pass the first federal wildlife-protection law in 1900 called the Lacey Act, which made it a crime to buy or sell animals that were illegally hunted. But the protection was too late for the passenger pigeon, which went extinct in 1914.

In the next few decades, Congress passed more legislation to try to protect animals, but many po[CENSORED]tions continued to decline.

In 1966, Congress signed the Endangered Species Preservation Act, which set aside land and water for conservation of dwindling fish and wildlife po[CENSORED]tions. But this act didn’t include any rules on how to protect these species, so three years later, Congress renamed the act to the Endangered Species Conservation Act and expanded it to create hunting restrictions. It also included protections for endangered species that live outside of the United States.

Then in 1969, an oil rig off the coast of California ruptured, creating the worst oil spill in the United States at the time. It dumped three million gallons of oil into the ocean; covered the beaches in slick, black oil; and killed thousands of animals. Then people found out that the government had given the company special permission not to follow safety regulations. If it hadn’t, the spill could have been avoided.

 

Americans were upset, and when President Richard Nixon walked along the black-stained beach, he knew things had to change. He created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and he pushed Congress to pass the Endangered Species Act in 1973.

The act officially defined what it meant to be an endangered or threatened species, protected plants and invertebrates for the first time, restricted hunting any animals on the list, and provided funding to save the species. And most importantly, it protects the habitats that these plants and animals depend on to survive.

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/endangered-species-act