Since the Endangered Species Act was signed into law 50 years ago today, it has helped protect over 1,600 species in the U.S.
To celebrate this landmark law, a few of these animals visited the White House.
Our Administration is committed to conserving America’s wildlife. pic.twitter.com/KR00xHVvtp
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 28, 2023
Interesting read from the Associated Press, about the mostly *un*charismatic megafauna (‘gubmint bureaucrats’) at the pointy end of this legislation — “As the Endangered Species Act turns 50, those who first enforced it reflect on its mixed legacy”:
On Dec. 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act. “Nothing,” he said, “is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed.” The powerful new law charged the federal government with saving every endangered plant and animal in America and enjoyed nearly unanimous bipartisan support.
The Act was so sweeping that, in retrospect, it was bound to become controversial, especially since it allowed species to be listed as endangered without consideration for the economic consequences. In that way it pitted two American values against each other: the idea that Americans should preserve their incredible natural resources (the United States invented the national park, after all) and the notion that capitalism was king and private property inviolate.
The Endangered Species Act was just one in a raft of environmental legislation passed beginning in the mid-1960s that included the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Wilderness Act and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Taken together, it was the most extensive environmental legislation the world had ever seen…
Open Thread: Fifty Years of the Endangered Species ActPost + Comments (86)