Law Commons^™

Accurate Economics To Protect Endangered Species And Their Critical Habitats, Jacob P. Byl

Pace Environmental Law Review

Federal agencies currently use a methodology that finds negligible benefits of protecting critical habitat for endangered species, despite the prime real estate that is often involved. The Endangered Species Act already calls for economic analysis, but agencies currently treat it as a meaningless hoop to jump through. Agencies justify this hollow exercise by pointing to the difficulty in quantifying the increment of added protection that comes with critical habitat designation. However, the increment of added protection for critical habitat can be measured using methods already employed by agencies in other environmental analyses. Although the central benefits of critical habitat are …

Bringing The European Eel Back From The Brink: The Need For A New Agreement Under The Convention On Migratory Species, Chris Wold

Pace Environmental Law Review

The European eel is considered “Critically Endangered.” Its population has been declining due to overutilization, barriers to migration such as dams, pollution, and climate change. The international community has responded by including the European eel in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (“CITES”) to regulate international trade and Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (“CMS”) to help improve the species conservation status. The EU has taken regional action to prohibit imports into and exports from EU Member States, although intra-EU trade is permissible. Despite these actions, the eel’s conservation status might not be …

Public-Private Conservation Agreements And The Greater Sage-Grouse, Justin R. Pidot

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In 2015, the Obama Administration announced its conservation plans for the greater sage-grouse, an iconic bird of the intermountain west.Political leadership at the time described those plans as the “largest landscape-level conservation effort in U.S. history,”and they served as the foundation for a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) that a listing of the bird was not warranted under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). The Trump Administration appears poised to substantially amend the plans, although an array of interested parties have urged that the plans be left intact. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, conservation of …

Buffalo Field Campaign V. Zinke, Hallee C. Kansman

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Despite years of litigation and legislation, the protection status of bison in and around Yellowstone National Park remains unsettled. Buffalo Field Campaign, a non-profit group, has spent decades spearheading the fight to list the species as either endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Buffalo Field Campaign v. Zinke tests the scope of agency directives and the strictness of the statutory language which guides agency actions.

The Fragile Menagerie: Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, And The Law, James M. Chen

Indiana Law Journal

I. THE HIPPODROME OF THE GODS: RACING AGAINST ECOLOGICAL AND

EVOLUTIONARY APOCALYPSE....................................................................... 304

II. ACROSS THE APOCALYPSE ON HORSEBACK: LEGAL RESPONSES

TO BIODIVERSITY LOSS .................................................................................... 310

A. OVERKILL ........................................................................................... 310

B. ALIEN INVASIVE SPECIES ..................................................................... 316

C. HABITAT DESTRUCTION AND PUBLIC LAND MANAGEMENT .................. 321

1. ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY .............................................................. 321

2. PUBLIC LANDS MANAGEMENT..................................................... 325

III. THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT: FROM PRIVATE LANDS TO

GLOBAL COMMONS .......................................................................................... 329

A. ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT MECHANICS .............................................. 330

1. LISTING ENDANGERED AND THREATENED SPECIES....................... 330

2. CRITICAL HABITAT ..................................................................... 333

3. INTERAGENCY CONSULTATION .................................................... 333

B. HABITAT CONSERVATION ON PRIVATE LANDS...................................... 335

C. …

When Extinction Is More Ethical Than Conservation: The Endangered Species Act And The Keystone Dilemma, Miranda F. Thomas

Exigence

This paper examines how the Endangered Species Act's measures to protect endangered species have resulted in increased rates of extinction. The author summarizes the concept of endangered keystone species and explains the processes and operations of the environmental legislation enacted to protect the species. The paper discusses the harmful consequences that certain laws have had on both species and humans, such as misappropriating resources to species that are not as endangered as others, and abusing regulations in manners that punish people for conservation efforts. By examining opposing arguments that favor increased regulation, this paper explains through data from leading academic …

Frankly My Dear, I Don’T Want A Dam: Refocusing Dam Removal Priorities To Protect Endangered Salmon Now, Skylar Sumner

Animal Law Review

Dams are a critical threat to salmon habitat and population recovery. While much progress has been made in the past few years with dam removal, the more quickly dams are removed, the greater chance that salmon can be restored to their historic ranges. In the Pacific Northwest, dams are a particular threat to salmon. Many regulatory tools can be used to bring dams into compliance, but there is often much resistance to these efforts. This Essay proposes that by targeting dilapidated private dams opposed to functional ones on public land, compliance or removal will be achieved with less resistance and …

Collaborative Management As A Mechanism For Incentivizing Private Landowners And Protecting Endangered Species, Ashley Graves

Texas A&M Law Review

Currently, the Endangered Species Act is falling short of its potential. Even though the Endangered Species Act has provided protection for endangered and threatened species and helped some species to recover and even thrive, the fact that most listed species’ habitat is on private land remains a hurdle that has not yet been overcome. In fact, the stringent requirements imposed upon private landowners often put endangered and threatened species at risk as some private landowners will use any means possible to stop the government from finding endangered or threatened species on their land. Because of this, the United States Fish …