Some Negative Downsides From The Endangered Species Act

See The Endangered Species Act Turns 40—Hold the Applause: The badly administered law has had a limited effect on wildlife while inflicting great social and economic costs by Damien Schiff And Julie MacDonald, WSJ, 12-28-13. Mr. Schiff is a principal attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. Ms. MacDonald is a former deputy assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the U.S. Interior Department. Excerpts:

"...has brought about the recovery of only a fraction—less than 2%—of the approximately 2,100 species listed as endangered or threatened since 1973. Meanwhile, the law has endangered the economic health of many communities..."

"Originally, it was only when an animal or plant was labeled "endangered"—on the verge of disappearing—that landowners were hit with heavy regulations.... But the Carter administration extended these restrictions to species that are "threatened"—in trouble but not facing extinction."

"Ask the people of Cedar City, in southwest Utah, where Endangered Species Act regulations have given the Utah prairie dog the run of the town since it was listed in 1973. The rabbit-size rodent is now listed as "threatened," even though there are 40,000 in the region. In most cases, residents can't take measures to control the burgeoning prairie-dog population; they can't even try to relocate the animals to federal property."

"One reason the Endangered Species Act has spun out of control is that the federal agencies that decide whether to list a species—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—no longer base decisions on what the law calls for: data. Instead, they invent squishy standards like "best professional judgment." 

In eastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, the controversy over a rodent called the Preble's meadow jumping mouse shows how a regulatory mountain can rise from an evidentiary molehill. Federal officials listed the mouse as "threatened" in 1998, claiming that it was biologically separate from similar mice elsewhere. But they relied on a 1954 study that examined the skulls of just three Preble's mice." 

"DNA research over the next three years concluded that the mouse wasn't a "distinct subspecies""

"The cost of the Preble's "threatened" listing for landowners and local jurisdictions is $17 million yearly, according to estimates from the Fish and Wildlife Service. Developers have to set aside a portion of their property for Preble's habita."

"Some of the most damaging Endangered Species regulations stem from federal "biological opinions" issued by U.S. Fish and Wildlife or NOAA staff. In recent years, for instance, irrigation has been dramatically reduced in the San Joaquin Valley, California's agricultural heartland, because a "biop" claimed that irrigation harmed a tiny fish, the delta smelt. 

To protect the smelt, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered severe restriction on water deliveries by government water projects. In 2009, at the height of the resulting man-made drought, hundreds of thousands of acres went fallow, and unemployment in some communities touched 40%."