Talking Points

The planet is losing species faster than at any other time in all of human history.

• The accumulated effect of habitat loss, pollution, and other small daily tinkerings with the natural environment is the slow and steady dwindling of even common species.
• Although extinctions occur naturally as a consequence of evolution, humans have accelerated this rate by hundreds, if not thousands, of times.

Humans are dependent on the natural world.

• We rely on the natural world for our food supply.
• Wild species are a source of most curative drugs. According to the National Wildlife Association, more than half of the 150 most popular prescribed drugs contain natural compounds, with an economic value of at least $80 million.(1)
• Wild plants and animals hold important recreational value, generating billions of dollars annually. A 2001 report found that 66 million Americans spent more than $38 billion in that year alone observing, feeding, or photographing wildlife.(2) That same year, 280 million recreational visitors spent an estimated $10.6 billion in and around the nation’s national parks. That spending supported 212,000 tourism-related jobs.(1)
• Species act as warning signs about the health of our ecosystems, and the loss of species and their habitats should be a warning sign for human health and viability. As one simple example of how problems in non-human species can serve as a warning signal for our own species, think of the groundbreaking research done in the 1970s and 1980s regarding the pesticide DDT. Rachel Carlson alerted many Americans to the health hazards of DDT based on her research of its effects on bird populations. The chemical, which has since been banned in the United States, was causing egg shells to be so thin and brittle that they would break under their mother’s weight while nesting. Prior to Carlson’s research, most Americans believed that DDT was good for you. The problem with DDT is that it accumulates in human bodies, mostly through food and liquids that we consume. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has labeled it as a probable human carcinogen; high levels of DDT can affect the human nervous system, causing tremors and seizures. Women with high levels of DDT in their bodies have an increased chance of giving birth prematurely and may also be unable to breastfeed their babies for as long as healthy women.(3) In this case, a simple observation of effects on bird and animal populations led to a whole new scientific investigation into a widely-used pesticide, and such effects served as a warning sign for human and environmental health.

State governments are more important than ever in protecting species and other natural resources.

• The states have repeatedly been the nation’s principal laboratories for policy change.
• States have the authority under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) to adopt comprehensive programs to protect endangered species.
• Some states have already taken the lead in developing new laws aimed at protecting species.

State endangered species acts have a vital role to play in endangered species protection.

• State endangered species acts give a state the ability to protect non-federally-listed species. In the Northeast, for example, upland sandpiper numbers are declining, though not widely enough to warrant federal protection. In an effort to stem the decline, several states have put the bird on their state lists and have begun local efforts to recover the bird. Nearly everyone agrees that, if the states stopped working on saving the species, it would need federal protection. So, state listing can be the first line of defense on behalf of recovery. In addition, states should have the power to act when federal agencies fail to do so. Most of the species known to have gone extinct in the past 30 years were not protected under the federal ESA, most of them due to lengthy delays in the listing process. States need to be able to protect species they regard as important to their ecology, economy, diversity, and identity.
• For species already on the federal list, a state act can provide another line of defense on behalf of recovery. Most acts provide a prohibition against taking; others give the state the authority to do research and acquire land for protection. In New Mexico, the federally-endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow recently was uplisted on the state list from “threatened” to “endangered,” giving the state the ability to do a recovery plan, prohibiting taking of the species and authorizing research. The state Department of Game and Fish has stated that it won’t prepare a separate recovery plan but, instead, will pool its resources with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and coordinate its activities to aid the federal efforts, including providing biological research and a species database.
• States can play an innovative role in preventing ecosystem fragmentation. In cooperation with their neighbors and the federal government, states could develop regional ecosystem plans to identify key habitats, protect ecologically important areas, and allow human development on the least sensitive areas. A regional ecosystem plan would maintain each state wildlife program’s flexibility, while guaranteeing that whole ecosystems are rationally protected.

The federal ESA is still important.

• Despite efforts to weaken federal authority, the federal government must continue to play the primary and lead role in endangered species protection. Without a comprehensive standard of protection, citizens would possess no assurance that nationally important species, such as the gray wolf or the grizzly bear, would be protected by the states in which they reside. The federal umbrella also provides the basis for interstate cooperation in protecting migratory species.