Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act was written to protect and recover the at risk species and the ecosystems that those animals depend on. It was passed in 1973 in hopes of recognizing the natural resources are very important to our nation and people. The U.S Fish and wildlife Service and the Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service are administrators of the act, and they both have their own responsibilities when it comes to implementing the ESA and the animals it protects. “The FWS has primary responsibility for terrestrial and freshwater organisms, while the responsibilities of NMFS are mainly marine wildlife such as whales and anadromous fish such as salmon” (“US Fish and Wildlife”, 2015). There are many different sections throughout
For example, definitions, land acquisition, cooperation with the states, and exceptions are all sections in the act and although each has their own responsibility they all play an important role. To me, the most important section of the act is the definitions section. What this section contains is pretty self-explanatory, however the words and definitions that it contains are not. This is an important section because it takes the different words throughout the act and defines it so that everyone understands. Also, they define the words so that there isn’t any confusion as far as what a word means in any situation. For example, words like species and endangered are defined in the definition section of the act. “Endangered means a species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. “Threatened” means a species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future. All species of plants and animals, except pest insects, are eligible for listing as endangered or threatened” (“US Fish and Wildlife”, 2015). They are defined this way so that whenever or wherever it is found throughout the rest of the act, the meaning of the word isn’t changed and is understood by whomever is reading it. There are many other words that they define in this section for this reason. It is the most important section to me because it doesn’t allow anyone to create their own definitions
Although the act is very important, there is still a lot of things that could be done differently. Many people understand the importance of the act and how important it is but still have things that they would like to change to make the act better in their eyes. Some would like to change definitions, limitations, state rules, regulations, the different species on the list, and the rules regarding putting those species on the endangered list or any of the other lists. When it comes to making any type of change to an act such as this, some consequences are definitely sure to follow. However, in some cases the change could be very helpful and the consequence that we are willing to deal with and can manage dealing with if it helps with the conservation of these plants and