The Ocelot's Hope: The Endangered Species Act and Private Landowners
Posted: 22-Dec-2003; Updated: 01-Nov-2006
A rare bird is becoming less rare these days. The Northern aplomado falcon - the rarest North American falcon - has been successfully restored to Texas, and much of the credit goes to effective Safe Harbor agreements.
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| The endangered ocelot could benefit from the Safe Harbor program, as did the aplomado falcon. (Photo: Fish and Wildlife Service/Tom Smylie) |
Private landowners are crucial in stemming the tide of vanishing species. More than half of all protected species in the U.S. live primarily on private land, and between one-third and one-half of protected species live only on private land. Without the support of landowners, the federal government can do little to recover these vital habitats.
The Ocelot's Plight
While the aplomado falcon represents one of the act's success stories, the plight of the ocelot, whose range once stretched from Texas to northern Argentina, reveals its shortcomings. Once a mainstay of the Lone Star State's landscape, these graceful, nocturnal wildcats now number about 60 in southern Texas.
The ocelot was first listed as "endangered" in March of 1972 under the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969, which allowed for the Secretary of the Interior to create a list of wildlife "threatened with worldwide extinction." The 1969 act built on the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, which was the first federal effort to protect endangered species but authorized little more than habitat protection. With these two acts laying the groundwork, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 finally addressed the problem of extinction by listing animals and plants as either "threatened" or "endangered" and by protecting land deemed as "critical habitat" to the survival of the species.
Over its thirty years, the act has had a mixed record. On the success side, it has prevented the extinction of nearly all the species it protects. But recovering species to the point that they are no longer endangered - the ultimate goal of the act - has fallen short of the mark. The ocelot is just one of many species in crisis, and represents just one of Environmental Defense's programs to restore endangered species.
In effect, the ocelot's habitat has been edged out by farmlands while the cats themselves have been the targets of hunters eager for their striped and spotted pelts. The remaining survivors in the U.S. can be found in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. A lack of protected area continues to plague the ocelot across the Mexican border, where it is thought that a similar number of ocelots survives in northeastern coastal Mexico.
A Plan for Recovery
To boost the number of cats, Environmental Defense has joined forces with The Nature Conservancy and Pronatura Noreste, a Mexican conservation group, to create a 130-mile-long, cross-border corridor to let the Texas ocelots breed with their Mexican counterparts.
We are also working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on incentive-based habitat restoration projects with Texas ranchers in Willacy and Cameron counties. With guarantees that habitat improvements won't result in added government regulation, landowners can create Safe Harbors to protect the habitats of the vanishing species by instituting conservation measures.
One of the nation's first Safe Harbor program launched in South Texas in December 1996 planned for the reintroduction of the endangered northern aplomado falcon. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a permit authorizing the Safe Harbor program to The Peregrine Fund, a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to conservation of birds of prey. By August 2003, Texas ranches had enrolled more than 1.5 million acres. In a state where this species did not breed for over 50 years, 37 pairs were established by the spring of 2002, with many on Safe Harbor lands. The falcons successfully raised more than 92 young. In 2002, the Safe Harbor agreement was expanded to 42 counties in west Texas, where releases are continuing.
For the many species growing on private land, it is this carrot approach to the Endangered Species Act that may well hold the key to full recovery.
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