North Carolina Success Includes Reintroduced Red Wolf, Recovery of Brown Pelican

Today, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) marked the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by releasing a state-by-state summary of progress being made to recover once-imperiled wild animals and plants. The well-known legislation, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 28, 1973, was approved nearly unanimously by both Houses of Congress.

“Citizens of every state in this nation can see firsthand in their own state examples of the progress being made in bringing wildlife back from the brink of extinction,” said EDF senior ecologist Dr. David S. Wilcove. Examples of recovering wildlife in the illustrative, but not exhaustive, report range from little-known Hawaiian plants to gray wolves howling in Yellowstone and majestic bald eagles, which again soar over nearly every state.

In North Carolina, just over 10 years ago the red wolf was extinct in the wild ? but 70 to 80 wolves now roam free in several areas of the state. The first release of captive-bred red wolves was in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in 1987. Today the endangered species inhabits three islands, three wildlife refuges, and several privately-held properties, thanks to the help of landowners who have made about 200,000 acres available for wolf recovery.

In June 1992, the second known East Coast nesting of the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle took place in North Carolina. The peregrine falcon, which had vanished entirely from the eastern US by the mid-1960s, is back in North Carolina, where six pairs established territories in 1997. On August 26, 1998, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing the peregrine falcon from the endangered species list.

Habitat for endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers is improving in some parts of North Carolina, where owners of private woodlands, golf courses, and other properties have enrolled about 25,000 acres in the innovative Safe Harbor Program. EDF and the US Fish and Wildlife Service developed the program as a means of encouraging landowners to maintain property for endangered species without fear of further regulatory burdens. Bald eagles are increasing in number in North Carolina, where 15 pairs occupied territories in 1997, up from seven pairs in 1990. On July 12, 1995, the bald eagle was reclassified from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. The Atlantic coast population of brown pelicans has recovered and was removed from the endangered species list February 4, 1985. The once endangered American alligator has fully recovered and was removed from the endangered species list June 4, 1987.

“The accomplishments of the Endangered Species Act involve many Americans ? among them the intrepid biologists who scaled trees and cliffs to return bald eagles and peregrine falcons to states from which they had vanished, determined scientists and volunteers who protected sea turtles nesting on the nation’s beaches, the Nez Perce tribe which is overseeing the return of the wolf to Idaho forests, and a young man in California who turned back from a life on the streets to aid a rare butterfly,” said EDF’s Margaret McMillan, who compiled the report.

Though hailing the many successes achieved thus far, the EDF report also noted a critical need to improve conservation efforts on privately owned land. “Because most endangered species have most of their habitat on private land, it is essential that new approaches be found to enlist more landowners as active partners in conservation efforts,” said EDF economist Robert Bonnie.

EDF itself has been instrumental in designing one successful new approach, “safe harbor” agreements. Under these, landowners restore or improve habitat, but do not incur additional land use restrictions as a result of endangered species taking up residence on their property as a result of the improvements. Over a million acres of private land has been entered into safe harbor agreements since the novel idea was embraced by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt three years ago.