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Each year, countless plant and animal species--probably tens of thousands--vanish forever from the Earth. Some, like the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, die off in the natural order of things. But the vast majority fall prey to human activity. Extinction is a tragedy in its own right. The intrinsic value of life itself--whatever form it may take--is reason enough to do all we can to save endangered species. But the loss of a species can have other, equally tragic consequences. In ways we may not even realize at the time, every such loss weakens the delicate "web of life" which supports our planet's biosphere. This, in turn, magnifies the threat to the survival of the human species itself. The links are all around us. Many types of wildlife, known as "Indicator species," provide crucial clues to the health of entire ecosystems. When certain march birds, for example, become endangered, it signals that our wetlands--vital for controlling floods and purifying our drinking water--are endangered as well. Similarly, the threat to the northern spotted owl is a warning to halt the destruction of our remaining old-growth forests. No one can predict the effects of a blow to any part of the web, so intricately are species and processes intertwined. The loss of sea otters, for instance, leads to a rise in the number of sea urchins. The growing sea urchin population, in turn, consumes greater quantities of kelp, resulting in smaller kelp forests. The forests, however, are home to many other species--some of which may not survive. Thus an ecosystem's loss of one species can trigger a chain reaction with far-reaching consequences. Today, the greatest threat to biological diversity comes from commercial development, conversion, and fragmentation of natural habitats. As human population continues to grow, so do the risks to other species. Saving plants and animals from extinction is up to us. Our own self-preservation demands it. And so does federal law. Congress recognized the urgent need for protection in 1973 by passing the Endangered Species Act. This extraordinary legislation--a landmark in U.S. environmental law--requires federal agencies to take "such action necessary" to ensure that their actions "do not jeopardize the continued existence of an endangered species." Under the Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains a list of threatened and endangered species. Any species at risk of extinction throughout a significant portion of its range is classified as "endangered." Species not yet at such severe risk, but likely to become so in the foreseeable future, are deemed to be "threatened." The agency is required to develop and implement recovery plans for all listed species. Although decisions on whether to list a given species must be based solely on scientific evidence, economic factors form a key element of every recovery plan. In order both to protect species and prevent further decline, the law also directs the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate "critical habitat" for all listed species, alerting government agencies, developers, and others to their presence in a given area. It requires federal agencies, through a process of consultations, to find ways by which mining, logging, and other activities near these areas may take place without posing additional risks to endangered or threatened species. While the law has saved numerous species from imminent extinction--the bald eagle, the red wolf, the whooping crane, and the peregrine falcon, to name a few--only rarely has it interfered with development. In fact, of over 2000 formal consultations conducted by the Fish and Wildlife Service during a recent five-year period, the World Wildlife Fund found that only 18 activities--or 1 percent of the total--were blocked or canceled. Another 71,560 informal consultations were conducted without a single project being stopped. Despite such evidence, a powerful, industry-based coalition of developers, timer companies, agribusiness firms, and large water users has mounted a massive campaign to weaken the law--with the aim of leaving them free to despoil private and public lands alike. Many of their claims play on economic fears. The timber industry, for example, argues that protecting the northern spotted owl in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California will cost thousands of logging jobs. In fact, it is massive overcutting--along with automation and the industry's practice of exporting logs for processing by cheap, non-U.S. labor--that has wiped out over 90 percent of America's ancient forests. Only by preserving the owl's critical habitat, the old-growth forests of the Northwest, and by instituting sensible forest management practices can we provide long-term protection for U.S. loggers' jobs. This heavily financed coalition is taking its fight to local city councils and to Capitol Hill, where it can count on support from its anti-environment allies in Congress. Meanwhile, however, hundreds of at-risk species--species required to be protected under the law--are falling victim to the slow-moving gears of federal bureaucracy. More than 700 species have been listed since 1973. But at least 3000 candidates continue to wait for formal rulings by the Fish and Wildlife Service. And though the agency so far has determined that some 600 candidates deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act, it says it lacks the resources to add them to the list. The future of endangered species is up to us. Beyond the legislative assault, biological diversity in this country is under the gun on a number of fronts. The primary threat is loss of habitat. Habitat is often destroyed directly, through urbanization, or conversion to logging, mining, or agricultural uses. But habitat loss may also occur through indirect means. These include:
As humans change landscape patterns by altering and disconnecting habitat--impeding fish travel, for example, by constructing dams that interfere with salmon runs--the long-term capacity of a given region to maintain its biodiversity is diminished. Moreover, in addition to habitat loss, other threats to species include overharvest, extermination, pollution, overcollection, and loss of genetic variability. Despite the threats, however--and the dangers posed by the so-called "wise use" and property-rights movements, which value unrestrained exploitation above sustainable use of resources--there is hope for endangered species, and for those who understand the need to preserve the web of life" for future generations of Americans. It is imperative that we defend and strengthen the Endangered Species Act, our most important legal bulwark against runaway extinction. But we need more than the Act's "emergency room" treatment for species in crisis. We need "preventive medicine" to help increasing numbers of species avoid this perilous condition in the first place. To prevent the further loss of the world's biological diversity, we must take steps to preserve adequate amounts of all types of natural habitat. This means refocusing our energies on protecting the health of entire ecosystems, rather than treating problems in isolation from one another. Just as the fates of different species are inextricably linked, a breakdown in any part of an ecosystem--soil, water, air, plants, wildlife, and so on--affects every other part. We cannot adequately solve one problem while ignoring the others. One model for such a holistic approach is the Sierra Club's Critical Ecoregions Program, which aims to assure the survival of 19 endangered ecological regions in the United States and Canada. To meet this objective, Sierra Club activists will strive to identify all know threats to each region's biological integrity, and to develop comprehensive plans to combat these threats and restore ecological balance. The Critical Ecoregions Program is based on a simple premise: To protect the species of the Earth--including our own--we need to protect the Earth. In addition to defending the integrity of laws like the Endangered Species Act, we must defend the integrity of the planet itself--by working to preserve land in its natural state, demanding sustainable use of natural resources, curbing pollution and global warming, and stabilizing world population growth. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to maintain a list of all threatened and endangered species throughout the world. The law directs the agency to list every plant or animal species determined to be at risk of extinction throughout a significant portion of its range (classified as "endangered"), as well as those deemed likely to become so in the foreseeable future (classified as "threatened"). Under the Act, all federal agencies must take "such action necessary" to ensure that their actions "do not jeopardize the continued existence" of any listed species. While more than 700 species have already qualified for such protection, at least 3000 imperiled species are awaiting official decisions on their fates. According to the Government Accounting Office, some 600 candidates deemed eligible by the Fish and Wildlife Service may not be formally listed until at least the year 2006. For decades timber companies have pillaged America's old-growth forests, clearcutting thousands of acres in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California for the majestic, highly profitable Douglas fir. The shrub-like Pacific yew, a far less imposing resident of these rapidly dwindling ancient forests, was known as a "trash tree." Loggers burned it as refuse. And then came taxol. Extracted from the yew's bark--and available from no other source--taxol was found in the mid-1980s to be a successful cancer-fighting agent. The drug is particularly useful in treating ovarian cancer, which kills more than 10,000 women each year. Unfortunately, the routine destruction of the Pacific yew has left taxol in short supply. Today--its numbers severely depleted--the once-lowly yew is in such great demand that the species itself is threatened. And so are the lives of thousands of women who stand to benefit from this extraordinarily promising drug. Of course, few plant species turn out to have so dramatic an impact on human life. To scientists, however, the plight of the Pacific yew underscores the need to preserve even the most seemingly insignificant species. No one can predict how the loss of a single species will affect other species, human or otherwise, Just as important, it's impossible to gauge the long-term impacts on a given ecosystem or, ultimately, the "web of life" on which the entire planet depends. We are all a part of that web. As the Pacific yew illustrates, we ignore any species--even a "trash tree"--at our peril. To learn more about the Sierra Club's work to preserve natural habitat and to protect endangered species see our Protect Wildlands Campaign, or contact your local chapter. Up to Top |
