The ESA needs to be updated to benefit species and incorporate common-sense improvements informed by decades of implementation. The law is five decades old and was last reauthorized in 1988. Currently, there are more than 1,650 species listed as threatened or endangered in the United States and only three percent of those listed species have been recovered. A substantial need for reform is evident, as implementation of the ESA under today’s regulatory regime has led to counterproductive policies, to the detriment of both imperiled species and the stakeholders committed to a balanced approach to species recovery.

NESARC has been instrumental in shaping both comprehensive and targeted ESA proposals considered by Congress and federal agencies. The Coalition has supported and worked with Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle as they have developed legislation and built support for legislative improvements to the Act. In the regulatory arena, NESARC has provided its members with detailed analyses of Administration proposals on a broad range of issues related to ESA implementation, and has submitted comments on many of these proposals. In both Congress and the Administration, NESARC provides its members and like-minded stakeholders a voice for meaningful input and participation in finding effective and balanced legislative and regulatory improvements to the ESA that support the protection of fish, wildlife and plant populations as well as responsible land, water and resource management.