Center for
Biological Diversity
June 2016
85 percent of continental U.S. birds increased their population size or stabilized since being protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The average population increase was 624 percent.
Few birds were expected to recover by 2015 because they have been protected under the Act for just 36 years on average, while their federal recovery plans estimate 63 years is needed.
Eighty-five percent of continental United States birds protected under the Endangered Species Act increased or stabilized their population size since being protected, according to a new report by the Center for Biological Diversity. The average population increase was 624 percent.
A Wild
Success: A Systematic Review of Bird Recovery Under the Endangered Species
Act (PDF) is the first-ever study to examine the year-by-year population
size of all 120 bird species protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Drawing on more than 1,800 scientific population surveys, the analysis
concludes that the Act has recovered imperiled birds at the rate and
magnitude intended by its congressional creators and administrative
overseers.
“The Endangered Species Act has been spectacularly successful for America’s
most imperiled birds,” said Loyal Mehrhoff, the Center’s endangered species
recovery director.
“From plovers on the East Coast, to warblers in the Great Lakes, terns in
the Midwest, falcons in Texas, bald eagles in the Rocky Mountains, and
towhees in California, the Endangered Species Act has rapidly and
dramatically increased bird population sizes and put these birds on the road
to full recovery.”
Recovering species include California condors in California and Arizona (up
391 percent since 1968), whooping cranes in the central United States (up
923 percent since 1967), wood storks in the Southeast (up 61 percent since
1984), Kirtland's warblers in the Great Lakes (up 1,077 percent since 1971),
California least terns (up 1,835 percent since 1970) and Puerto Rican
parrots (up 354 percent since 1967).
Key findings of the report:
“The Endangered Species Act not only greatly increased bird population
sizes, it benefited thousands of other species, people and entire
ecosystems,” said Mehrhoff. “In recovering imperiled birds, federal and
state wildlife agencies cleaned up America’s rivers and lakes, restored
millions of acres of forest, kept development away from public beaches and
greatly expanded the size of, and access to, public lands.”
Among the birds in today’s report:
California condor — America’s largest bird, with a wingspan
of almost 10 feet, was protected as endangered in 1967 after DDT, lead
poisoning and shootings pushed it to the brink of extinction. By 1968 only
55 birds survived in the wild. Due to intensive recovery work, by 2015, 270
birds were living in three wild populations — two in California and one in
the Grand Canyon — and 167 were safe in captivity.
Whooping crane — By the time America's tallest bird was
protected as endangered in 1967, unregulated hunting and habitat destruction
had crashed its population to just 43 individuals in the wild and seven
captive birds. Intensive conservation efforts, including the designation and
protection of critical habitat areas in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma,
helped the population increase to 440 wild and 161 captive birds by 2014.
Wood stork — The draining and damming of the Southeast's
rivers, wetlands and swamps caused this large wading bird to decline from
20,000 pairs in the 1930s to only 29 nesting colonies when it was listed as
endangered in1984. Due to habitat restoration and the purchasing of vital
wetlands, the wood stork was downlisted to “threatened” status in 2014 and
by 2015 had increased to more than 10,000 nesting pairs.
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