Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a law designed to save species from extinction. What began as an informal effort to protect several hundred North American vertebrate species in the 1960s has expanded into a program that could involve hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species throughout the world. In 2015 approximately 3,079 animal species were listed as endangered or threatened, with approximately 485 endangered species in the United States alone. The law has considerable public support, but has sometimes been seen by commercial interests as an impediment to economic development. This issue came to a head in the Pacific Northwest, where the northern spotted owl was listed as threatened. This action had significant effects on the regional forest...