Endangered Species Act

Protecting endangered wildlife

The ESA saved bald eagles from extinction. Photo: Paul Anderson

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is the United States safety net for protecting plants and animals on the brink of extinction. The act not only protects wildlife at risk, it protects people, too, by helping keep intact the ecosystems on which our lives depend.

Under the Act, science informs decisions made to name, or "list," a dwindling species as threatened or endangered. The identification and designation of critical habitat necessary to a species survival is an important part of the listing process. Read more about specific provisions within the act.

The Endangered Species Act is the cornerstone of US environmental law and one of the strongest environmental laws in the world.

Canada, for example, has no endangered species law with legal teeth or real regulatory power for protecting endangered wildlife, from northern spotted owl to mountain caribou.

Conservation Northwest stands by the laws safeguarding rare and endangered wildlife and champions the use of science in protecting wildlife and habitat critical habitat. We also press for the listing and protection under the act for wildlife threatened with extinction, from wolverines to western gray squirrels.

Learn more at the Endangered Species Coalition. Conservation Northwest is a member of the ESC.

Visit ESA Blaw, a blog dedicated to the ESA.

Species and populations with recovery plans