50 years since the Endangered Species Act, how has it impacted Minnesota's wildlife?

Fifty years ago today, Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. It was a groundbreaking piece of legislation that tasked the federal government with saving any endangered species — plant and animal.

For a perspective on how the act has impacted Minnesota, we asked Lacy Levine from the Conservation Management and Rare Resources Unit at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. She has worked on numerous projects under the Act over the years.

To hear the full interview, click on the audio player above. The following transcription has been edited for length and clarity.

How innovative or unusual was the Endangered Species Act and is it still today?

Over the course of the Endangered Species Act’s existence, there have been a lot more programming involved in administering the Endangered Species Act. There are a lot more players involved in implementing the provisions of it.

There’s a lot of opportunities for state agencies like the Minnesota DNR to get involved and to seek permitting, seek research projects — all sorts of different initiatives to really implement it and to hopefully serve the protected species.

What have some of the success stories been here in Minnesota over the past 50 years?

Just last year in January, we completed the Lakes States Forest Management Bat Habitat Conservation Plan, which is a very long title but its goal is to protect and conserve bat species that are threatened by White-nose Syndrome.

The Minnesota DNR worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as two other DNR agencies in Wisconsin and Michigan to complete that bat habitat conservation plan.

Our different activities that we have at the DNR in forested landscapes — such as timber harvests, prescribed fire, road and trail construction, and a number of other things — can continue to go on but do so in a way that helps to protect bat species.

If White-nose Syndrome either gets at bay or the species have a comeback, we’ll be able to continue doing our activities and do so in a way that conserves the bats' different habitats.

A lot of our listeners will be thinking of the bald eagle as one of the success stories. Certainly, we have evidence of that here in Minnesota, right?

Absolutely, the bald eagle is a great example of a protected species that was once on the federal endangered species list and is now off and thriving.

Our beloved eagle cam that the DNR has is an example of how people stay engaged with these species that are really exciting to watch thrive now that they’re off the list and doing so well.

What efforts can you tell us about going on right now here in Minnesota that are backed by or because of the Endangered Species Act?

Right now, we have about 20 species that are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act. So, they have different categories of how species should be defined, whether threatened, endangered or on the watch list.

There are several mussel species, one fish species — the Topeka shiner — several flowering plants. Many of them are our favorite orchids that we see out in the forest and elsewhere.

Three insects, one of which is actually our state bee, the rusty patch Bumblebee, and several mammal species. The Canada lynx, gray wolves and the northern long-eared bat as well as a rattlesnake.

That’s a lot of species and a lot of diverse types of species. So, the DNR plays a very active role and has a great partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to work on all kinds of initiatives to help these different species.

50 years on, would you say the Endangered Species Act is still effective?

I think it is still effective. There are a lot of great resources that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has for individuals as well as organizations to implement the endangered species act effectively.

I would love to see the Endangered Species Act and some of the tools that the Service has available to folks to be expanded, to be a little bit more collaborative.

But at the end of the day, it’s doing a great job and we're all going to benefit from it — having these species protected and trying to do the best work we can to recover these species and to continue to protect them.

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