Director's statement on the Endangered Species Act

This June, a Californian made national headlines just for visiting Oregon. She was B-9, the first condor to soar over our state in more than a century. It's a homecoming that once seemed impossible. In the 1980s, the California condor population plummeted to fewer than 30 birds, on a trajectory to join the passenger pigeon in extinction. But thanks to the Endangered Species Act-and decades of work by conservation partners like the Yurok Tribe and Oregon Zoo - condors are one of America's greatest comeback stories.

For more than 50 years, the ESA has been our nation's most effective tool against extinction, saving around 99% of species under its protection. It has earned broad, bipartisan support because it reflects a simple value: America's wildlife is the heart of our natural heritage - and once a species is gone, it's gone forever.

But recently, the White House finalized rule changes that drastically weaken the ESA and threaten our most vulnerable wildlife.

One change removes habitat destruction from the definition of what "harms" a threatened or endangered species - ignoring the basic ecological reality that destroying places wildlife depend on can be just as deadly as killing animals directly. Habitat loss is the leading driver of biodiversity loss worldwide.

Another change allows short-term profits to outweigh a species' chance at survival when making critical habitat decisions. Imagine giving up on saving a species to expedite development of a golf course, data center or mine. Animals like wolverines-which need vast, connected habitat to thrive - are especially vulnerable to this change.

A third rule eliminates automatic protections for newly listed threatened species. Previously, threatened species automatically received the same protections against killing, harm or harassment as endangered species. Now, candidate species such as the northwestern pond turtle, sunflower sea star or Mazama newt could continue declining while they wait for separate protections to be put in place.

Here in the Northwest, we've seen what's possible with a strong ESA. The Oregon Zoo has raised and released more than 30,000 Oregon silverspot butterflies at coastal prairies where they'd nearly vanished. We've hatched more than 150 condors for release into the skies. Northwestern pond turtles are returning too, their Washington range tripled through our headstart program. And we're now underway on an effort to save the Mazama newt, an amphibian that only lives in Crater Lake.

None of that happened by accident. It happened because wildlife agencies, Tribes and conservation organizations paired science and action with strong legal protections for wildlife and the habitats they depend on. Weakening those protections will only make recovery harder, more expensive, and for some species, impossible.

The ESA has worked for America's wildlife for more than half a century. It shouldn't be abandoned now. Let's give our children what we once had: condors soaring overhead, meadows filled with butterflies, streams running full of fish.

There are two ways we can act. First, ask your members of Congress to cosponsor the Safeguarding Endangered Species Act, which would restore the ESA's original definition of "harm" to include habitat destruction. Second, remember that efforts to weaken the ESA are the result of decisions made by elected leaders. The next time you vote, remember that America's wildlife and natural heritage depend on a strong Endangered Species Act.

Heidi Rahn, Director of the Oregon Zoo