the ESA, Nixon signed the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the
Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act, and he established the Environmental Protection Agency.
1975: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Flora and Fauna Species Act (CITES)
takes effect in the U.S.
1980: The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act expands the National Wildlife Refuge
System by 53 million acres.
1985: Congress passes the Food Security Act, or Farm
Bill, establishing the Conservation Reserve
Program.
Modern Milestones
Throughout the 1990s to the present, conservationists and national leaders worldwide have become
increasingly aware of the mounting threats to wildlife
and habitats, including human population growth,
resource extraction, habitat fragmentation, climate
change, and loss of biodiversity. Efforts to address
these threats and live sustainably will continue for
decades to come.
1993: President Bill Clinton forms the National Biological Survey (NBS), a consolidation of 1,600 federal
government scientists in eight bureaus of the Department of the Interior, to identify species and
habitats that are at risk of becoming threatened.
1996: Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt renames
the NBS the Biological Resources Division and
assigns it to the U.S. Geological Survey.
1998: President Clinton signs the Kyoto Protocol,
which calls for sharp cuts in greenhouse gas
emissions. (In 2001 President George W.
Bush announced that he would not submit the
treaty to the Senate for ratification, citing the
economic costs.)
1999: The Departments of Interior, Agriculture,
Commerce, and Defense form a coalition with
university researchers to
conduct research on natural
resources and the environment and offer additional
educational and outreach
programs. The organization,
known as the Cooperative
Ecosystem Studies Units,
now comprises more than
200 universities, NGOs, and
federal agency partners in 17
regions.
2000: Congress passes a version of the Conservation
and Reinvestment Act (CARA). Now called the
State Wildlife Grants Program, the legislation
diverts $50 million a year from the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service budget to the states, and
requires each state to have a comprehensive
wildlife conservation plan.
2008: After a decade-long campaign launched by
sportsmen’s groups, Minnesota passes the
Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment,
which funnels a percentage of state taxes
directly to the state’s Department of Natural
Resources.
2009: President Bush establishes three marine
national monuments, which protect nearly
200,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean.
2010: After announcing an opening of offshore
drilling early in the year, President Barack
Obama places a moratorium on deepwater
drilling operations in the wake of the Gulf of
Mexico oil spill, widely viewed as the worst
environmental disaster in U.S. history. (A
judge blocked the moratorium in June and
the Obama administration issued a revised
moratorium in July.)
Our society debates conservation decisions with
great emotion, whether the issue is drilling for oil
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, controlling
urban deer, or managing wolves. This debate over
wildlife and wild places occurs despite our increasing urbanization and distance from nature. Such
trends make it all the more critical for wildlife professionals to know and understand the history of our
field, and to share that knowledge with the public
and with decision makers to ensure that science
forms the basis of conservation policy. If we do not,
then the democracy of conservation—a core tenet
of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation—will be in danger, as will the very animals and
ecosystems that we treasure.
Credit: Dave Menke/USf WS
the bald eagle is a
beneficiary of the
endangered Species Act,
signed by President Nixon
in 1973.
Credit: John and Karen hollingsworth/USf WS
international trade in
wildlife products came
under greater scrutiny with
the ratification of CiteS by
the U.S. in 1975.
Credit: Rachel Brittin/Af WA
launched in the 1990s,
teaming With Wildlife—a
coalition of more than 6,000
conservation groups—lobbies
for increased resources for
wildlife and habitat restoration.
