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Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the endangered species act (ESA). The purpose of the ESA is to “protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.” For many species listed as endangered by the ESA, the US Fish and Wildlife Service develops a recovery plan which contains management actions necessary for species recovery, a timeline for recovery, and measurable criteria that, if met, result in delisting or moving from endangered to threatened status. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of the ESA in terms of progress made towards species recovery as defined by recovery plans and how making progress on species recovery plans impacts subsequent delisting. The student research assistant will examine all species listed as endangered and as well as species previously listed as endangered that have been delisted to document which species have recovery plans and then build a dataset containing information on the criteria for recovery, the progress made by different species towards recovery, and species listing status over time |