WASHINGTON – Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow in Agricultural Policy Daren Bakst released the following on The Department of Interior’s revision to regulations governing the Endangered Species Act (ESA):

Species conservation efforts should be focused on protecting threatened and endangered species. For over 45 years, the Endangered Species Act has failed to effectively recover species with only about 3 percent of listed species getting delisted due to recovery efforts, largely due to how the federal government has implemented the law. The Trump Administration’s reforms to the Endangered Species Act modernize implementation and better allocate resources to provide protections for truly threatened and endangered species.

 

While more needs to be done to improve species conservation, the federal government is on the right track by recognizing past mistakes implementing the ESA and taking steps to correct them. The Trump Administration should be commended for these common-sense reforms.