Gray Wolves No Longer Need Federal Protection, Obama Administration Says

[Scootaloo]

27. Unfortunately this is the way the ESA works

It wasn't really written with ecology in mind. The ESA doesn't seek to protect ecological webs, it doesn't look to rebuild what's been eroded or destroyed by humans and introduced organisms. It doesn't try to reestablish biodiversity.

Rather, it seeks to create a living museum, to ensure the existence of this species or that species. It decides, "okay, we have enough for now" and strips protections, as if the forces that caused the endangerment just vanished, or as if the species can make it without the ecological infrastructure.

Basically the ESA works a lot more like a birdwatching list, or one of those checklists you get at a zoo. It's an obsolete perspective on the matter, one that largely ignores the complexity of the ecosystem in favor of framing one particular plant or animal as a "success story"