The ESA Today
By Lily Auliff

A soaring brown pelican suddenly drops from the sky, plunging bill-first into the Gulf, in search of dinner. Although not an uncommon sight now, just decades ago there were fewer than 100 Eastern brown pelicans living along the entire Texas coast, according to Texas Parks & Wildlife. Now, scientists estimate there are at least 2,400 breeding pairs.

The brown pelican, whose resurgence was ensured by the ban of DDT and localized habitat protections, has become a poster child for the success of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). But will other local animals and plants in peril experience the same kind of recovery?

Brown Pelican courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas is home to 66 animal and 32 plant endangered or threatened species, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Well-known Gulf Coast natives on the list include the bald eagle, red-cockaded woodpecker, whooping crane, Attwater prairie chicken, American alligator, Houston toad, and several sea turtles.

The ESA, passed in 1973 and reauthorized in 1988, regulates many activities that affect plants and animals that are listed by FWS and the National Marine and Fisheries Service (NMFS) as either endangered or threatened. Endangered species are defined as those that are considered in danger of extinction; threatened species are those that are likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.

The ESA prohibits possessing, trading, or harming listed species. The act also requires either FWS or NMFS to develop a recovery plan and allows the agencies to protect critical habitat.

At the national level, several prominent environmental groups are speaking out against current government efforts to sidestep established policy. “The Bush Administration has been carrying out a series of stealth attacks on the ESA and other wildlife protections,” reads Open Season on America’s Wildlife, a report from Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, the Endangered Species Coalition, and the National Wildlife Federation.

The 12-page document accuses the administration of catering to corporate interests by failing to defend against industry lawsuits, citing a controversial settlement that removed dozens of critical habitat designations, which give added protections to lands considered vital to the survival of a species. It also charges the nation’s leaders with allowing industry to destroy sensitive habitats by, for example, pushing for drilling in the Rockies, where grizzly bears still roam, and in Los Padres National forest, home to the California Condor. A recent military spending bill also exempts habitats on military installations from ESA protections if a separate natural resources management plan is in place.

Houston Toad courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife

Inadequate funding to enforce the ESA has long been an issue as well, according to the report. Lack of money and staff has made implementing conservation program difficult and left a backlog of requests for listing new species, a process that has taken years in the past. Fortunately, a recent court ruling now requires the FWS to make decisions on listing requests within one year.

It is business as usual at the local level, however, says biologist Edith Erfling, who is stationed in FWS Ecological Services Office in Houston. There is only one critical habitat designation in her jurisdiction of southeast Texas – for the piping plover – and that area has not been contested. None of the species involved in the controversial lawsuits reside in this region, and no nearby military bases are home to listed species.

However, Texas does have its own challenges, explains Erfling. Protecting listed species is easiest on public lands, because government agencies are legally required to cooperate. But less than six percent of Texas land is owned by the federal and state governments, according to the General Land Office.

“You have to be more creative in the work that you do and go about things differently because it is private land,” explains Erfling. Her office reviews all development plans that come from federal and state agencies to ensure listed species are not harmed. However, that isn’t possible with private individuals. “We can advise people whose actions we believe may violate ESA, but we don’t have the authority to stop them.”

“In Texas, the biggest obstacle is educating people,” she adds. “They need to know that just because you have an endangered species on your land doesn’t mean you can’t continue to use your land as you wanted to.”

Destruction of habitat due to rapid urbanization is also a concern. Banning DDT in the 1970s saved many species. But most local plants and animals now are listed due to shrinking habitat – habitat that is steadily being eaten away by development.

The good news is that, according to Erfling, with the exception of some plant species growing primarily on private lands, most local endangered and threatened species are holding their own, and some are increasing in number.