Environmental Laws
ENV/320
June 16, 2014
Siroos Mostaghimi

Environmental Laws Paper
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was put forth in legislature to provide protection for threatened and endangered species and to preserve biodiversity. The Act has been amended several times since its birth. The following paper will further discuss the Endangered Species Act history, the responsible parties for enforcing the Act, where the Act can be located in the Code of Federal Regulation and the United States legal code, and the benefits as well as the costs regarding the Act.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973
The original Endangered Species Preservation Act was created in 1966 with the goal of providing a means of listing native species as endangered and giving them limited protection (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, 2013). In 1969 the Act was amended to include species protection against worldwide extinction through prohibiting the selling and importation of endangered species in the United States (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, 2013). In 1973 during a conference in Washington eighty nations signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which would monitor and restrict if necessary international commerce if believed that trade would harm plant and animal species (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, 2013). In 1973 the Endangered Species Act was passed by Congress replacing the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1969. The Act of 1973 provides conservation to all endangered and threatened species as well as conservation for the ecosystems that they depend and rely upon (NOAA Fisheries, 2014). Since the beginning of the Endangered Species Act it has been amended several times keeping its initial framework intact (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, 2013).
Environmental Agencies Responsible for Enforcing the ESA
The agencies that help to enforce and implement the Endangered Species Act are the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior, the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and the Department of Commerce (The United States Department of Justice, 2010). The Department of Commerce decides whether or not a species is “threatened” or “endangered” and whether they should be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior has authority over freshwater and terrestrial species and the National Marine Fisheries Services has authority over marine species (The United States Department of Justice, 2010).
Code of Regulation
Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants can be found in Title 50 of the Code of Regulations Part 402 (Cornell University Law School, n.d.). Title 16 of the United States Code in sections 1531-1544 the Endangered Species Act legal code can be found (Cornell University Law School, n.d.).
Benefits of the Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act provides many benefits including economically by boosting wildlife hunting, fishing, hiking and wildlife watching which in turn creates private and public sector jobs (Defenders of Wildlife, n.d.). Protection for critical habitats that house endangered and threatened species and also provide clean air, water, protects important natural resources, and helps to prevent erosion (Defenders of Wildlife, n.d.). Protects species of plants and animals that may have the means to cure diseases someday such as the pacific yew tree which produces a toxin with anti-tumor properties and has aided in the treatment of cancer.
The Platte Basin shared by Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska is located in the west central United States. Fifteen major resevoirs and dams were built to manage and control water distribution mostly for agricultural irrigation but also for urban, industrial, ecological, and recreational purposes (Heinmiller, B. 2011). Competition grew for the basin's scarce water and by the 1970's the extensive development and over appropriation took their toll. The tragedy of commons regarding the Platte Basin is that because of everyone's self interest in getting the water they needed and lacking the interest to concern themselves with the long term effect it caused the Platte Basin's downstream flow to be drastically reduced and natural flow regime was altered, which in turn threatened native species and altered the surrounding environment (Heinmiller, B. 2011). In 1973 when the Endangered Species Act went into effect giving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's the power to protect species that were considered to be in jeopardy (Heinmiller, B. 2011). In 1978 six species were identified in the Platte Basin and that 417,000 acres of water be returned to the environment so that the habitat for these species could be protected (Heinmiller, B. 2011).
Costs and Benefits of the Endangered Species Act
At the time Congress passed the Endangered Species Act of 1973, they clearly wanted economic criteria to not be a factor when listing species or habitats. Amendments to the Act followed requiring the assessment of costs and benefits forced policymakers to recognize that economics plays a significant role and should be considered (Brown and Shogren, 1998). Direct public spending and private expenditures including time and money spent on licensing and permit applications, legal fees, and redesign of plans all add to the cost of the Endangered Species Act (Brown and Shogren, 1998). Benefits regarding the Endangered Species Act depend on use and non-use values. For instance recreational, consumptive, and current commercial would have value given that it has a visible market value and can be estimated (Brown and Shogren, 1998). In the Pacific Northwest where salmon fishing is recreational as well as commercial, 60,000 are supported and over $1 billion is accrued in personal income in the areas economy (Brown and Shogren, 1998). Estimating non-use values are more difficult mainly because of the people's lack of understanding of what services are provided by endangered species (Brown and Shogren, 1998). Therefore it is difficult to place an economic value on goods that people do not even know exist or that they may never directly use (Brown and Shogren, 1998).
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was created to help protect endangered and threatened species alike as well as the habitat that they depend on for survival. The Act provides many benefits depending on its use or non-use value. Because of this value system all species are not treated equally meaning that a species who has a use value that people can see and take an interest in will be higher priority rather than a non-use good that people do not know exists. Economic resources are limited therefore The Endangered Species Act cannot guarantee the survival of every species listed however it is a good start.

References: Brown Jr., Gardner M. and Shogren , Jason F. (1998). Economics of the Endangered Species Act. The Journal of Economic Perspectives , Vol. 12, No. 3 (1998), pp. 3-20 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2647029
Cornell University Law School. (n.d.). 50CFR - Wildlife and Fisheries. Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text
Defenders of Wildlife. (n.d.). Economic Benefits of the ESA . Retrieved from https://www.defenders.org/sites/default/files/publications/economic-benefits-of-the-endangered-species-act.pdf
Heinmiller, B. (2011). Freeman, David M. (2011). Implementing the Endangered Species Act in the Platte Basin Water Commons. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. International Journal Of The Commons, 5(1), 158-159. Retrieved from http://www.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/ijc/article/view/279/190NOA
Fisheries. (2014). Endangered Species Act. Retrieved from http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/laws/esa/
The United States Department of Justice. (2010). Implementation of the Endangered Species Act and Related Litigation. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/enrd/4690.htm
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. (2013). Endangered Species Act | A History of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Retrieved from http://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/esa-history.html