The Endangered Species Act (ESA), which turned 50 years old on Thursday, has largely failed to restore populations of endangered species, according to government data analyzed by researchers at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC).
The ESA, overseen and enforced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), is the backbone of the federal government’s efforts to conserve endangered or threatened species. The act has two primary goals: save species from extinction, then help them recover.
But USFWS data show a massive gap between the ESA’s impact on the rate of extinction versus its ability to help species recover, according to USFWS data analyzed by PERC vice president of research Shawn Regan and PERC research fellow Katherine Wright.
Over the ESA’s lifetime, just 3% of species listed under the act as protected species have ever recovered. In a social media post…
