7749

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7749
• Author: Kohm, K. A., ed.
• Title: Editor
• USFW Year: Series
• USFW - Doc Type: 1991
• Copyright Material: YES

46 REFLECTIONS ON THE ACT
contributions to agriculture, technology, and other down-to-
earth activities, they can stake a strong claim to survival space
in a crowded world" (Myers, 1979a, p. 56). Elsewhere he urges
"conserving our global stock" (Myers, 1979b).
That is not what Congress says at all. It does not say: Save
those species that are economically valuable. To the contrary,
Congress says: Temper economic growth by saving species that
have other kinds of values. The title is not "An Act Conserving
Our Global Stock" or "An Act for the Enlightened Exploitation
of Species." The Endangered Species Act is a congressional reso-
lution that the nation and its people ought to live as compatibly
as they can with the fauna and flora on their continent (and
abroad), and it .deplores the fact that we are not now doing so.
The act claims that what is good for the fauna and flora is good
for the people. Anyone who thinks the contrary has the burden of
proof.
Working out this general principle will mean, at the level of
particulars, that somebody, somewhere, will have to "temper"
their economic interests lest they endanger species and lest peo-
ple lose these noneconomic values that the act intends to pro-
tect. But what does it mean to temper economic growth out of
concern for these deeper natural values?
EVOLVING CONCEPTS OF PROPERTY
Fauna, Flora, and Landowners
The Endangered Species Act, people -first think, is about grizzly
bears and bald eagles. Animals and birds move around. They
live in dens and nests in particular places but range over hun-
dreds or thousands of square miles. In the case of big animals
and migrating birds, it is easy to see that they do not belong to a
local landowner or even a state. There is a long legal tradition
that property holders do not own vertebrate wildlife, even if
such wildlife resides entirely on one owner's property. Wildlife
is a common good held in trust by the state for the benefit of the
peoples Hence, although the landowner does control access to
his land, the state decides when animals can be taken and who is
licensed to do so. This legal tradition -arose with regard to indi-