The Business of Saving Species

I've found the uproar over proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act reassuring.  With so much else going on in the world, from tension in the Middle East/North Korea/everywhere else to the easily-rattled economy, it's nice to see that people can still take a little time out of their day to be worried about endangered species.

I'm just a little skeptical about how long the concern will last.

Don't get me wrong.  Organizations like Wildlife Conservation Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and Sierra Club will stay vocal and keep applying pressure.  For the rest of the public, however, I suspect that this will soon be drowned out by the latest political outrage, which should be due any minute now.  Then, 95% of us will move on, leaving the other 5% to slog on.

The "Environment," as a nebulous, deity-like entity, has never been a key issue for most political campaigners, and I don't expect to see the 2020 election season being much different.  Today, when we talk about the environment, it mostly means climate change.  To be sure, climate change is one of the key global challenges facing wildlife around the world.  On the other hand, it sometimes seems that when we talk about it, we focus so much on the forest that we lose sight of the individual trees.  Those trees, of course, being individual species... some of which are having axes taken to them as we speak.

It would be disingenuous to pretend that, even if we somehow miraculously address climate change, all of our other conservation worries will be resolved.  Some are not even threatened by climate change.  Some species may actually benefit from it.  Each endangered species is endangered in its own way, and each needs its own tailored plan for recovery, unique to its circumstances.  That's the beauty of the Endangered Species Act.

Zoos and aquariums can, for understandable reasons, be hesitant to get too political, for fear of alienating a large chunk of the public that we serve and the politicians and government agencies that we have to work with.   What we've seen in Africa and Southeast Asia and Latin America about species conservation holds true here - conservation only works when we have buy-in and support from local communities.   What we need is to get that buy-in.  Neutrality is not an option.

The solution is to utilize the assets that we have - our animals, our audiences, and our passion.  Use native species - endangered or otherwise - to highlight the beauty and uniqueness of America's wild heritage.  For some species - American bison, American alligator, trumpeter swan, bald eagle - we can share great stories about successful recoveries of nearly-lost species.  For others (California condor, red wolf, whooping crane, black-footed ferret) those stories are still ongoing, their success in the hands of the American people.  Don't treat it is a political issue, framing it in a way that makes visitors think of themselves as Democrats or Republicans.  That's a surefire way to make people dig in their heels and close their ears and minds.

Frame it as a moral issue, a patriotic issue - these animals are a part of our country, a part of our communities, and a part of our national identity.  To lose them would be to lose a part of what makes us America.