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THE POWER AND POTENTIAL <br />OF THE ACT <br />by <br />LYNN A. GREENWALT <br />THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT ~ESA~ became laW lri December <br />1973; I had been named director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife <br />Service two months before. Thus, this remarkable legislation <br />and I have had a long association. This retrospective assessment <br />of one of the most powerful environmental laws of the century is <br />that of a nonlawyer who, with his associates, attempted to -real- <br />ize the potential of the legislation without letting its inherent <br />power become its downfall. <br />From its beginning, the act was regarded as special. A pro- <br />fessor friend of mine from a western university once told me he <br />always asked one of his government classes to characterize the <br />act's fundamental nature. The predominant theme of their re- <br />sponses, he reported, was that the act is in a way theological. It <br />reflects a nation's collective commitment to prevent any species <br />of plant or animal from disappearing-a pledge that transcends <br />the social, economic, and national security issues usually ad- <br />dressed in legislation. When one considers that the act protects <br />the Socorro isopod-a small crustacean that has remained un- <br />changedfor millions of years and is now restricted to a few small <br />springs in Mexico and the American Southwest-in the same <br />way that it protects the bald eagle, then it is evident we have <br />made a commitment unlike any other. <br />One of the first jobs after the act was signed was to devise <br />31 <br />