Endangered Species, Private Property, and the American Bison

[Draggingtree]

Ludwig von Mises Institute :

Endangered Species, Private Property, and the American Bison

 

Mises Daily: Monday, February 10, 2014 by Benjamin M. Wiegold

 

The political debate over what should be done about endangered species seems to be continuing without end. Calls are already emerging this year to place a multitude of species on the endangered list, including the emperor penguin, the Arizona toad, the African lion, as well as many others.

 

The current endangered species list of both plants and animals numbers over 9,000. This is considerably higher than the 78 different species mentioned under the original Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966. Nearly 50 years later, 72 of these 78 species still remain on the list, with only 2 recovered, 3 extinct, and 1 removed due to an error in the data.

 

Since Richard Nixon signed the comprehensive Endangered Species Act of 1973, intended to “halt and reverse the trend toward species extinction, whatever the cost” (emphasis added), only 30 of these 9,000 species have actually recovered, with ten having gone extinct. This gives the Act, enforced by both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an abysmal success rate of less than 1 percent despite an average yearly budget of nearly $2 billion.

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

"mankind does not know how to manage ecosystems, as is demonstrated by the gross mismanagement of Yellowstone National Park"
Michael Crichton (State Of Fear)