There's No Place Like Home: Conserving Species in the United States under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)

In the United States, the Endangered Species Act (ESA), signed into law in 1973, is a standout piece of our efforts to address the decline of biodiversity. The ESA depends on “recovering” endangered species to a sustainable population size for indefinite survival. However, if species recovery denotes “success”, the ESA has a long way to go. While cited as one of the most comprehensive wildlife protection laws in the world, the ESA has only led to the recovery of about 3% of species listed. My research engages with dimensions of science, policy, and communication to better understand how species can be more effectively recovered. While recovery planning can be examined through the lens of different policies across scales, the ESA is a valuable case study due to its expansiveness and its status as one of the most consequential environmental laws to date. My dissertation centers around four projects to improve the recovery planning process under the ESA, each of which equate to a scientific paper that will be submitted for publication. Within each of these four chapters, I examine aspects of recovery planning implementation, including Species Status Assessments, Five-Year Reviews, and on-the-ground practitioner implementation, and the roles they play in endangered species protection. I will evaluate elements of the recovery planning process to systematically determine how we currently define and measure recovery in these interdisciplinary spaces, with the aim of offering recommendations to improve the conservation of endangered and threatened species. By disseminating my findings to my partners at USFWS and various NGOs, I can better ensure my research is actionable and wide-reaching, and the results of this dissertation will be invaluable for wildlife management and on the ground decision making. This dissertation explicitly extends beyond academia to engage all relevant rightsholders and consider multiple interests and priorities for conserving species. This approach will increase the usefulness of this science for management, help rightsholder groups balance their differing goals, and allow for prompt application of my findings to ultimately improve recovery of endangered species through improved communication and collaboration.