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Legislative Perspectives on a Living Law 27 court upheld the lower court decision in June 1978. The Su- preme Court's ruling sparked a major assault on the very heart of the Endangered Species Act. Spearheaded by congressional leaders from the Tennessee delegation, the industry sought to eliminate Section 7 of the act, which requires federal agencies to take the necessary steps to prevent any destruction of habitat of an endangered species. The elimination of Section 7 would have gutted the effective protec- tive mechanism of the act. Fortunately, a compromise was reached to create an independent board and an administrative procedure to resolve conflicts between federal projects and en- dangeredspecies habitat. The first decision by the board was the Tellico Dam project and, once again, the project was put to rest. But not forever. In 1979, over my objections and those of others intent on preserving the integrity of the ESA, Congress passed a measure to continue construction of the Tellico Dam project. The dam's proponents made an end run around the act by attaching a rider to a House energy and water appropriations bill. Despite consid- erable opposition to this legislatively created exception to the act, the Senate narrowly voted to continue the project after the snail darters were removed to nearby waters. In fifteen years, we have learned it is possible to reverse the road to extinction. In 1973, the symbol of our nation, the bald eagle, was en route to extinction because the pesticide DDT had so poisoned its environment that the eagle could no longer lay hatchable eggs. When the government proposed to ban DDT, cotton farmers, citrus growers, and countless others rushed to tell us they could not possibly stay in business without DDT. The sky did not fall, we still have strong cotton and citrus industries, and the bald eagle is well on the road to recovery, aided by active programs of protection and restoration under the author- ity of the Endangered Species Act. Other travelers on the road to extinction have turned around and begun the road to recovery. More whooping cranes fly south across the U.S.-Canadian border each fall and return north each spring than at any time in the past half century. Added insur- ance for the survival of that species has been purchased in the form of a new population established by the ingenious method of putting whooper eggs into the nests of sandhill cranes. Simi-