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The Endangered Endangered
by Bee Mohn
“All this debate about the Endangered Species Act revolves around the questions: 'Is it working? Are the species surviving or not?'" says Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) in Tuscon.
The Center, a scientific research and litigation organization, has just completed the first long-range, comprehensive study of all 56 federally-endangered species in the Northeastern United States since the ESA was enacted in 1973. Measuring the Success of the Endangered Species Act, Recovery Trends in the Northeastern United States is the first segment of a larger study tracking nationwide success of the ESA. “This is the first major study showing success rates of the most important law that protects endangered species," - Kieran Suckling, author of the report.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts studies every two years showing results for a 24-month period, but nothing over the long haul since the ESA became law in 1973. “People have tried to torture that data," says Suckling. “The data simply wasn't that good. The only way to find if the Endangered Species Act is successful or not is to go out and create data that doesn't exist anywhere. It takes a lot of time and work."
The Center has been open since 1989, working primarily in the Western states. Their focus is scientific research, conservation biology and litigation to protect endangered and threatened species and wilderness.
The Center partners with other organizations to conserve species along the Northeast Coast: New England Wild Flower Society, Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), the U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Study
CBD scientists gathered population data on all 56 species from over 100 scientists to look at how they have increased or decreased from the time they were listed.
“We found 93% have increased in size or remained stable," says Suckling. “We went into the study not knowing what the results might be. We thought there might be a 40 to 50% increase."
CBD looked at every published study on each species. They identified the primary scientists who worked on those species and asked for data, including unpublished, from their research. Over 100 scientists shared their data.
They culled unusable data that was gathered with grant money after a species was listed. Species already listed are known entities and attract more money, enabling scientists to perform more surveys and find more populations that were not listed before.
“It was a very rigorous process to weed out that type of data. We wanted to accurately measure the species and not the survey effort."
The Center looked at projected recovery times in the federal recovery plan for each species. Eleven were predicted to recover by 2005.
When determining results, some species were designated as “unknown" such as Knieskern's beaked-rush. “When we started the project there was a lot of well-educated opinion of statistics, but we wanted to make our study bullet-proof. We said 'show me the data that shows how many plants there were in 1997 and today to show whether the population increased or not.' The survey that took place for Knieskern's beaked-rush wasn't done early enough; scientific data doesn't exist to say how many there were then. Rather than guess, we scored them as unknowns. Unknown is not negative. It usually means a species is doing fairly well."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service makes resource decisions based on unknown populations, Suckling says. Their biannual short-term studies result in more unknowns than long-term studies would show, confusing some interpretations of data.
The Center advocates a full range of restoration techniques under the ESA.
Captive Breeding: Intensive breeding in greenhouses, transplanting back into the wild, and management. “It is the most important tool in the tool box for endangered species conservation," says Suckling. “It is expensive and doesn't always work." Success story: Robbin's cinquefoil
Designated Critical Habitat: Mapped out areas, protected, and managed for a species. “Many have fought against that idea. They say it costs time and money. It is controversial because if you draw lines on a map you can't do anything there. By not mapping things out, we're not declaring any part off limits. They can then negotiate the protection of any particular area. If an area gets mapped out, it may anger 'Industry.' The purpose of our work is not to not anger anybody. The AMC said 'Our trail goes through there.' They built a small wall to keep people out. They very successfully used that map to protect species. Designating critical habitat is very effective in focusing conservation in specific plans that are most important to the species."
Regulation: The U.S. Forest Service bans recreation in critical habitat with 95 percent compliance. “People respect it when they are told 'This is the law.' Industry never wants to set rules. They say it's harmful to the industry. They want to negotiate," says Suckling. In general, industry is timber, mining, developers, fisheries. Endangered species occur on public and private lands and both are subject to regulation. “Ultimately industry wants to plan for the future. They may ask 'Where can I fish? What kinds of mining techniques can I use?' If we clearly set regulations, they can plan around that. The opponents of regulation undermine themselves because they keep conservation in a whirlwind."
The Center brought its research results to Congress and met with staff of Senators Hillary Clinton and Lincoln Chafee. Their goal was to provide information to help the senators educate their colleagues.
The 1973 Endangered Species Act:
- 1,312 species currently listed; 1,350 species historically listed
- purpose: prevent extinction, move species toward recovery, fully recover, and removal from list
- it takes 42 years on average for a species to fully recover and be removed from the list
- most species have been listed 24 years on average
- 11 predicted to recover by 2005
- 4 extinct before being listed
Center for Biological Diversity Northeast study:
- 56 species listed and studied in Northeast
- 11 species stable
- 26 increased in population
- 3 in decline
- 9 have unknown trend
- 4 species fully recovered and delisted
- 8 downlisted to threatened or proposed to be removed due to recovery
- 87.5% of species have recovered or stabilized
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA):
- ESA is 1% successful
** Main photo: Northeastern Tiger Beetle, courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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published March 30, 2006
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