In assessing the effects of the Endangered Species Act, which first became law in 1973, the public has been distracted by confrontations involving the likes of the snail darter. But over the years remarkable progress has been made. The California condor has a chance to escape extinction. So has the red wolf, whose wild population was extinct until captive breeding and release into the wild began. The eastern brown pelican and the American alligator have largely come back.
International efforts seem to have saved the California gray whale.
Outlawing the marketing of ivory has helped Africa's elephants hang on. Our national symbol, the bald eagle, has been removed from the endangered list, and gray wolves are once again on the prowl in the West. It's sometimes said that the Endangered Species Act, which comes up for reauthorization by Congress this year, is an attempt to outlaw extinction. In fact, it's an attempt to mitigate the depredations of humans, particularly the destruction of critical habitats, which is still going on at an unsettling rate. The most spectacular save yet involves the American peregrine falcon.