Wisconsin Species Success Marked By Increasing Numbers of Rare Species

Today, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) marked the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by releasing a state-by-state summary of progress being made to recover once-imperiled wild animals and plants. The well-known legislation, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 28, 1973, was approved nearly unanimously by both Houses of Congress.

“Citizens of every state in this nation can see firsthand in their own state examples of the progress being made in bringing wildlife back from the brink of extinction,” said EDF senior ecologist Dr. David S. Wilcove. Examples of recovering wildlife in the illustrative, but not exhaustive, report range from little-known Hawaiian plants to gray wolves howling in Yellowstone and majestic bald eagles, which again soar over nearly every state.

In Wisconsin, for the first time since its 1991 listing as an endangered species, the winged mapleleaf mussel gave evidence of reproduction. Biologists found one and two year individuals and one gravid female. This species is found only in a small area of the St. Croix River in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Bald eagles are increasing in Wisconsin, where 645 pairs occupied territories in 1997, up from 358 in 1990. Since eagles are relatively numerous in Wisconsin, the state has donated them to other areas from which they have vanished, including the District of Columbia. On July 12, 1995, the bald eagle was reclassified from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. Gray wolves are increasing in number and expanding their range in the western Great Lake States. At the end of the winter of 1997-1998, an estimated 180 wolves inhabited Wisconsin. Endangered peregrine falcons are increasing in number in Wisconsin, where surveyors counted 12 pairs in 1997. On August 26, 1998 the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing the peregrine from the endangered species list.

“The accomplishments of the Endangered Species Act involve many Americans ? among them the intrepid biologists who scaled trees and cliffs to return bald eagles and peregrine falcons to states from which they had vanished, determined scientists and volunteers who protected sea turtles nesting on the nation’s beaches, the Nez Perce tribe which is overseeing the return of the wolf to Idaho forests, and a young man in California who turned back from a life on the streets to aid a rare butterfly,” said EDF’s Margaret McMillan, who compiled the report.

Though hailing the many successes achieved thus far, the EDF report also noted a critical need to improve conservation efforts on privately owned land. “Because most endangered species have most of their habitat on private land, it is essential that new approaches be found to enlist more landowners as active partners in conservation efforts,” said EDF economist Robert Bonnie. EDF itself has been instrumental in designing one successful new approach, “safe harbor” agreements. Under these, landowners restore or improve habitat, but do not incur additional land use restrictions as a result of endangered species taking up residence on their property as a result of the improvements. Over a million acres of private land has been entered into safe harbor agreements since the novel idea was embraced by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt three years ago.