Community's Role in Endangered Species Planning

Abstract

Sixteen years after the enactment of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a simple but little-noticed provision in that Act is transforming local and private land use decision making in major areas of the western United States. The provision is Section 9 of ES A, 16 U. S. C. §1538, which prohibits the “taking” of any endangered or threatened species. This simple provision has become the latest weapon of federal and state wildlife agencies and the environmental community in the battle with private landowners and local land use agencies over endangered species protection. In the process, Section 9 is fundamentally altering the traditional role—or nonrole—of local government in endangered species planning.