Does the ESA Help Species to Recover?
In passing the ESA,1 Congress demonstrated its intent to conserve and protect plant and wildlife species in the United States that are threatened with extinction. Listed species would receive special protection under the law and would be taken off the list when they recovered. In the 25 years after the ESA became law, 1,154 animals and plants have been listed as endangered or threatened;2 yet only 60 have been targeted for delisting–and, of those, only 27 have been delisted.3 According to the National Wilderness Institute, the reasons for delisting these species had little to do with the ESA’s efforts to recover them:4 7 species were delisted because they are extinct–the Tecupa pupfish, the longjaw cisco, the blue pike, the Santa Barbara song sparrow, Sampson’s pearly mussel, the Amistad gambusia, and the dusky seaside sparrow; 16 species were delisted due to data errors–the Mexican duck, the Pine Barrens tree frog, the Indian flap-shelled turtle, the Bahama swallowtail butterfly, t
