Failure of Endangered Species Act risks wildlife

They might be small. But the yearling razorback suckers caught this fall in the San Juan River are big news for efforts to recover these endangered desert fish.

Once common throughout the Colorado River Basin, the fish saw much of their habitat destroyed by widespread damming that reduced river flows and blocked important spawning areas. Razorbacks, which can live for 40 years and grow to more than 3 feet long, were headed for extinction.

Now, researchers have found more of the yearlings than they have in the last two decades. These native fish are reproducing, showing that protections for the species are working.

But the very law helping these fish is itself being threatened — by anti-wildlife members of Congress.

The Endangered Species Act is under attack from politicians bent on weakening this bedrock conservation law. Yet the razorback sucker’s story shows why protections for imperiled wildlife are critical to saving America’s wild heritage.

In 1991, the razorback sucker was classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. That kicked off decades of work. Federal, tribal, state and local agencies labored alongside conservationists and scientists to prevent the fish’s extinction.

The campaign involved restocking rivers, improving habitat for the fish by ensuring proper water flow by season and managing populations of nonnative fish that harm razorbacks.

All those coordinated efforts are paying off.

After catching 50 yearlings, federal biologists estimate there could be thousands of razorback suckers in about 180 miles of river.

While the yearlings are a good sign, in December, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service progress report showed zero wild-born fish that had grown to adolescence in the Green or Colorado river basins.

Those wild-born yearlings need to survive and reproduce, and that’s not happening yet.

Without a constant feed of hatchery fish into these waterways, the species is functionally extinct — or nearly so — which means more work must be done to save them.

Even so, the Trump administration is considering downlisting the fish from endangered to the less-protected threatened status.

That would contradict the service’s own recovery plan, which requires that new wildborn adolescent fish outnumber dying old fish before downgrading protections.

Though much more work is needed before the razorback sucker should lose any protections, the gains it has made would not have happened without the safeguards of the Endangered Species Act.

This success is the rule, not the exception, for this crucial law.

Yet despite its consistent success and widespread public support, anti-wildlife factions in Congress are working to cripple the Act.

In just this 115th Congress, 116 legislative attacks on the Act have already been introduced.

The worst bills would strip protections for nearly all gray wolves in the lower 48 states, undo protections for the majority of endangered species because they occur in only one state and allow trade in African ivory — which would likely drive elephants to extinction.

It’s not just Congress attacking the Endangered Species Act.

The Trump administration is trying to cripple the law’s implementation by incorporating economics into decisions on whether imperiled plants and animals receive lifesaving protections.

But the existence of a species cannot be measured by the same economic yardstick as a logging operation or oil derrick.

Even worse, proposed regulatory changes would undermine protections for endangered species’ critical habitat — which is absolutely necessary for their survival. These special places would be vulnerable to exploitation by mining, logging and other destructive industries.

The Endangered Species Act has saved more than 99 percent of plants and animals under its care from disappearing forever. And it’s put hundreds more on the road to recovery, including the razorback sucker.

Our elected officials need to acknowledge that success. They should support conservation efforts — not try to squander America’s natural heritage for short-term profits.