Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act was enacted 50 years ago, with the goal of providing protections for species that were in danger of extinction, recovering the populations to sustainable levels, and then removing the species’ protections once recovery was achieved. However, since then, a small percentage of species have been recovered. The ESA has also been weaponized to focus more on restricting access to lands and waters than on actual recovery of species. Species are often listed as threatened or endangered based on data errors, while others remain listed long after they have recovered due to frivolous litigation by interest groups seeking to maintain land and water use restrictions on the species’ habitat indefinitely. Federal agencies also frequently over-classify critical habitat areas, including those which contain no populations of the species in question.
EMA supports commonsense policies to modernize the ESA, including a bill introduced in Congress to provide more flexibility. The ESA Flexibility Act will grant landowners leeway and the Department of the Interior and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) flexibility when dealing with endangered species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
