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Dan Doak, a CU 色吧亚洲 professor of environmental studies who has studied threatened and endangered species for decades, reflects on a half century of species protection

Dec. 27, 2023, marked the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a piece of legislation with which Dan Doak, a University of Colorado 色吧亚洲 professor of environmental studies, is intimately familiar, and has been for some time.听听

鈥淢y Endangered Species Act work goes back to when I was a grad student,鈥� he says, when he was working to protect the northern spotted owl, whose habitat of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest was being destroyed by logging.听

While doing this work, Doak discovered that, thanks to his mathematical skills, he had a knack for making questions of endangerment, the language of which he says can sometimes be a bit 鈥渨ishy-washy,鈥� more concrete. He鈥檚 been doing similar work ever since and has thus developed a deep understanding of the ESA and its effectiveness.听

Doak defines the ESA as 鈥渙ne of a series of laws that say species have a right to not go extinct鈥攁t least in the hands of people.鈥澨�听听

That last part, he says鈥攖he part about human involvement鈥攊s especially important.听听

鈥淗umans have caused much more extinction than is natural. If we weren鈥檛 around, rates of extinction would be far, far lower.鈥澨�听

He points to the California condor, North America鈥檚 largest vulture, as an example. Though the number of condors is now more than 400, in 1987 the species was nearing extinction, with a mere 22 in existence.

鈥淲e shot them. We also shot other animals鈥濃�攖hat is, the condors鈥� food鈥斺�渨ith lead bullets, which caused lead poisoning in the condors.鈥�

Doak explains that the ESA divides endangerment into two categories: 鈥渢hreatened鈥� and 鈥渆ndangered,鈥� with the latter being the more serious. Yet he admits that the criteria for these categories can be tough to pin down.听

鈥淭he law is written by lawyers to be interpretable by judges and lawyers,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 about a biological idea鈥攈ow endangered is something鈥攚hich is really a question of how likely it is to go extinct over some amount of time.鈥澨�听

Consider the grizzly bear

Perhaps no species better exemplifies this conflict between law and biology than the grizzly bear.

When the grizzly bear landed on the endangered species list , Doak says, environmental groups and the government disagreed about how many bears there should be for how many years before that species could be considered safe.听听

鈥淭he government wanted there to be around 300 bears,鈥� Doak recalls, whereas the environmental groups wanted 1,000. And while the government wanted the population to remain stable for a couple decades, the environmental groups pushed for a much longer timescale.听听

鈥淚 can鈥檛 remember the exact number of years,鈥� Doak says, 鈥渂ut it was longer than the United States had been in existence.鈥澨�听

The trick in such deliberations, says Doak, is for the parties involved to come up with a solution that minimizes a species鈥� risk of extinction without veering into the excessive. It鈥檚 a tricky balance to strike.听听

One may therefore be forgiven for assuming that getting the ESA passed back in 1973 was a major political challenge. But one would be wrong.听听

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 controversial when it was passed,鈥� says Doak.听听

鈥淭his was a time when Nixon was going to sign the Clean Air Act and set up the Environmental Protection Agency with widespread Republican as well as Democratic support. It was a time when, if you flew into LA, you couldn鈥檛 see the ground because of the incredible air pollution. And so there was widespread support for the ESA.鈥澨�听

Doak says that the ESA is more controversial now than it was in its infancy. 鈥淭here is a perception that it never works and that we鈥檙e not accomplishing anything other than inconveniencing people.鈥澨�听

Yet this perception is based more in imagination than in reality, Doak argues.听听

鈥淭here are lots of species that clearly would be extinct right now if the Endangered Species Act didn鈥檛 work.鈥澨�听

Balancing ideal and reasonable

One threatened animal Doak himself has helped to protect is the desert tortoise. 听
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鈥淭hey were declining very rapidly, but the attention the Endangered Species Act put on them led, in part, to the creation of a new national preserve, Mojave National Preserve, and to better understanding about some of the impacts humans have had on desert ecosystems and the plants and animals there. And so, while the tortoises are still on the threatened list, we鈥檝e taken multiple actions to preserve them from going extinct.鈥澨�听

And that鈥檚 not the only success story, says Doak. Channel Island foxes, ospreys, bald eagles, pelicans; these once-threatened or endangered species have become daily common in recent decades, and that could not have happened without the ESA.听

Doak says that there are now two challenges facing those involved in species protection. One is how to distinguish between what is ideal and what is reasonable.听听

Returning to the grizzly bear, while it may be ideal to once again have a high population density of that species in California, where鈥攄espite being extinct there鈥攊t鈥檚 the state animal, it may not be reasonable, given the Golden State鈥檚 huge numbers of humans.

The second challenge, Doak says, is climate change.听听

A changing climate means changing habitats, and if species鈥� habitats change, keeping those species alive becomes a lot more complicated, as Doak illustrates with the help of a rare type of buckwheat that grows in the foothills of the Rockies.听听听

This buckwheat 鈥渟eems to be naturally rare, and probably that鈥檚 because it鈥檚 really sensitive to climate,鈥� Doak says. If the climate changes, 鈥渟hould we transplant the buckwheat to higher elevations? Do we move it to save it or not?鈥澨�听

The most obvious answer, Doak suggests, is to stop climate change. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e not doing that very effectively.鈥� 听
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And so, 50 years after the ESA was written into law, the work continues.听听

鈥淲e have to plan for protecting species and habitats,鈥� says Doak, 鈥渁s well as our own lives.鈥�

Top image: Channel Island fox, grizzly bear, bald eagle, desert tortoise

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