Report Shows Progress For Rare Hawaiian Species

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.

An endangered Hawaiian lobelia, one of many plants known as “haha” or by its scientific name Cyanea pinnatifida, was thought to be extinct before a single plant was discovered in 1992. Two pieces of that plant were used to clone hundreds of plants, some of which have been returned to a protected wild habitat, where the plant is doing well. The endangered Hawaiian hawk appears to be stable and is successfully nesting and foraging in both native and disturbed habitat. The species has benefited from Endangered Species Act prohibitions against take and Section 7 consultations, and it may be downlisted or removed from the endangered species list pending further survey results.

The Mauna Kea silversword, an endangered plant known from only three wild individuals in 1973, is improving in status. Seeds taken from two plants produced seedlings in cultivation, which were returned to the wild, increasing the species to over 800 individuals. Late in 1996, an additional tiny population comprised of five wild plants was discovered. With the help of captive breeding programs, the nene, or Hawaiian goose, has increased from fewer than 25 individuals known only on the Island of Hawaii to a few hundred on three islands.

“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.