{"id":1207,"date":"2017-02-26T13:35:40","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T18:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vampstampnews.com\/wpbirdseed\/wordpress\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2020-10-09T16:44:42","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T20:44:42","slug":"does-the-endangered-species-act-really-help-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birdseedandbinoculars.com\/wordpress\/does-the-endangered-species-act-really-help-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the Endangered Species Act Really Help Birds?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Bald Eagle (Patuxent Research Refuge North Tract, Maryland 2016)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Do you ever wonder if being listed as an endangered species really makes a difference to these birds? You know like, “Is it just hopeless?”<\/em> And do bird species that are listed ever get off the list? This morning I was poking around online and I stumbled on a website that answers these questions. Sound interesting? I thought so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Endangered Species Act & Birds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Birds & The Endangered Species Act site<\/a> hosts a report entitled, “A Wild Success: A Systematic Review of Bird Recovery Under the Endangered Species Act.”<\/em> Ok, wait! I know this might like pretty sound pretty dry reading, but I actually found it easy to read and understand and it’s not overly long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put together by the Center For Biological Diversity<\/a>, it looks at how the Endangered Species Act has been working out for bird species in the US. The site also has a map for Endangered Bird Trends.<\/a> Here, you can click on different regions of the US to learn about birds listed in each region, with quick facts, a chart and brief summary info. Do you know what birds are on the list for your region and which ones have come off? I didn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birds That Have Come Off The List<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You probably already know that one of the act’s biggest success stories was to get the Bald Eagle off the endangered list. They were on the edge of extinction back in the 1970’s. Here in central Maryland, we see Bald Eagles soaring up in the skies over our lakes and waterways quite often now. You really don’t have to look that hard to find them anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But did you know about the American Peregrine Falcon and the Brown Pelican. These are two species that have also come off the list. Both of these are species I’ve seen here in Maryland in the past year. Other birds in my area, like the Piping Plover and the Kirtland’s Warbler are still on the list, but their populations are increasing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It Can Take Decades<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One big take-away for me was that just putting a bird on the list doesn’t magically fix things. They don’t come off the list in just a couple years. When a bird goes on the list, there is a plan created for saving them that typically spans decades. That’s the way things work in the natural world. It’s one of those, \u201cIt’s a marathon, not a sprint\u201d<\/em> kind of situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Report’s Summary Explains:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We found that the Endangered Species Act has been extraordinarily successful in recovering imperiled birds:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n